The  D.L.Moody  Series 


SHORT 


TALKS 


D.  L.  MOODY 


JAN  27  iOin 


BV  3797  .M7  S5  1900  ~ 
Moody,  Dwight  Lyman,  1837-  [ 

Short  talks 


Short  Talks 


by. 


D.  L.  Moody 


VHA  or  uix 


Chicago      :      New  York      :      Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 


Copyrighted  1900  by 

The  Bible  Institute  Colportage  Assoclacioa 

of  Chicago 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

The  Blessing  of  Sins  Forgiven 5 

The  Fifth  Chapter  of  Mark 10 

The  Gift  of  Power 18 

Nothing  too  Hard  for  God 21 

Steps  in  the  Downfall  of  Israel 28 

The  Seven  ''Walks''  of  Ephesians 36 

The  Unknown  Companion 48 

Fellowship  With  God 53 

No  Room  in  the  Inn 58 

Regeneration 76 

The  Precious  Blood 86 

Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit 94 


The  Red  Libr&.ry 


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Work^  by  D.  L.  Moody 

Weighed  and  Wanting      Short  Talks  by  D.   L. 
Men  of  the  Bible  Moody 

TjiKi«  r.1,0,.0 «♦/.,..,  Pleasure  and  Profit  in 

Bible  Characters  ^.^^^  g^^^y 

Select  Sermons  Sowing  and  Reaping 

Moody's  Anecdotes  Heaven 

The  Overcoming  Life  Moody's  Stories 

The  Way  to  God  To  the  Work ! 

Thoughts  for  the  Quiet  Sovereign  Grace 

Hour  Prevailing  Prayer 

Moody's  Latest  Sermons  Secret  Power 

Workj^  by  C.  H.  Spurgeon 

All  of  Grace 
According  to  Promise 
John  Ploughman's  Talks 
John  Ploughman's  Pictures 


Select  Poems  for  the  Silent  Hour 

Good  Tidings.    Sermons  on  the  Birth  of  Christ 

Recitation  Poems 

The  Way  of  Life 

Tales  of  Adventure  from  the  Old  Book.    By 

Thomas  Champness 
Resurrection 

The  True  Estimate  of  Life.    G.  Campbell  Morgan 
Up  from  Sin.    L.  G.  Broughton 
The  Revival  of  a  Dead  Church.  L.  G.  Broughton 


Fleming  H.  Revell  Compa^ny 

Chicago  New  York  Toronto 

Publtsehrs  of  Evangelical  Literature 


THE  BLESSING  OF  SINS  FORGIVEN. 

No  greater  blessing  can  come  to  a  man  this  side 
of  heaven  than  the  blessing  of  having  his  sins 
forgiven.  "Blessed  is  he  whose  transgression  is 
forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered"  (Psalm  xxxii.  i). 

Now,  there  are  two  ways  of  covering  sin,  and 
only  two  waj'-s — God's  way  and  man's  way.  For 
6,000  years  man  has  been  trying  to  cover  his  sin,  and 
he  has  made  poor  work  of  it.  Adam  tried  it  in  Eden, 
and  Cairi  tried  it  outside  of  Eden,  and  they  have 
been  trying  it  right  along  down  all  these  years. 
Yon  will  find  that  all  classes,  high  and  low,  kings  on 
the  throne,  priests  behind  the  altar,  prophets,  peas- 
ants, rich  and  poor,  have  tried  to  hide  their  sins,  and 
thej^  have  made  poor  work  of  it.  No  man  has  ever 
yet  succeeded  in  covering  his  sin. 

Not  onty  that,  but  Scripture  says:  ''He  that  cov- 
ereth  his  sin  shall  not  prosper."  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  reason  so  many  men  have  a  stormy  voyage 
in  life  is  because  there  is  some  accursed  sin  in  their 
lives.  I  am  not  talking  for  outsiders  any  more  than 
I  am  for  church  members.  I  beUeve  that  if  the 
latter  have  sins  that  they  are  not  willing  to  con- 
fess they  will  not  prosper.  Some  secret  sin  is  hin- 
dering their  growth.  Where  do  the  defaulting  presi- 
dents of  banks,  and  other  offenders,  come  from? 
Many  of  them  out  of  the  churches.  They  have  sat 
under  the  ministr}^  and  have  heard  men,  over  and 
over  again,  preaching  against  sin,  but  it  has  not 

struck  home.     These  foi-get  they  have  sins  to  con- 
es) 


6  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

fess  as  well  as  the  ungodly  and  the  people  outside 
of  the  church. 

God  wants  honesty  and  uprightness.  A  man 
that  you  can  trust  will  get  along  anywhere,  but  a 
man  that  has  to  be  watched  will  never  prosper. 
There  can  never  be  a  healthy  soul  as  long  as  there 
is  sin  in  it.  Sin  is  a  foreign  substance,  it  does  not 
belong  in  the  soul,  just  as  a  bullet  is  a  foreign  ele- 
ment, and  the  body  will  not  be  healthy  with  a  bullet 
in  it.  God  does  not  want  the  wicked  to  flourish, 
for  He  says:  "The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 
God  wants  it  to  be  hard,  for  if  a  man  prospered  in  his 
wickedness  he  would  never  come  to  God. 

When  a  man  is  ready  and  willing  to  confess  his 
-sins  and  turn  from  them,  God  covers  them.  When 
God  covers  sin  it  can  never  be  found  in  time  or  eter- 
nity. It  is  a  great  privilege  for  a  man  to  be  forgiven, 
and  not  have  a  cloud  between  him  and  heaven, 
between  him  and  the  smiling  face  of  his  Father. 
''Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
3lect?  God  that  justifieth?  Who  is  he  that  con- 
denmeth?  Christ  that  died?"  The  Bible  says  in 
one  place  that  the  sins  shall  not  be  mentioned;  in 
another  place,  that  they  shall  not  be  remembered. 

There  are  four  expressions  in  the  Bible  about  how 
God  covers  sin:  First — He  casts  them  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea.  Second  —  He  casts  our  sins 
behind  His  back.  Third — He  blots  them  out  as  a 
thick  cloud.  Fourth — He  removes  them  as  far  as 
the  east  is  from  the  west. 

INTO  THE  DEPTHS  OF  THE  SEA. 
He  will  cast  them  into  the  depths  of  the  sea. 
Dr.  Gordon,  of  Boston,  was  preaching  on  that 


The  Blessing  of  Sins  Forgiven.  7 

text,  and  he  forgot  to  put  in  ''the  depths."  He  just 
said  that  God  would  cast  them  into  the  sea.  When 
he  got  home,  his  little  boy,  four  years  old,  spoke  up 
and  said: 

"Father,  whj^  didn't  3'ou  tell  the  people  that  sins 
were  heavy  like  lead,  and  sank  out  of  sight  in  the 
water?  They  might  think  they  were  like  corks, 
floating  around  on  top  where  they  could  be  seen." 

God  has  covered  that  point.  He  has  cast  them 
into  the  depths  of  the  sea.  Let  the  devil  go  down 
there  and  get  them  if  he  can.  It  is  a  safe  place  to 
have  them,  in  the  depths  of  the  sea.  There  are 
some  parts  of  the  sea  which  they  never  have  been 
able  to  fathom.  Bunj^an  says:  'Thank  God,  it  is 
a  sea,  not  a  river.  If  it  was  a  river,  it  might  dry  up, 
and  they  might  find  them  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  but 
the  sea  never  dries  up." 

BEHIND  GOD'S   BACK. 

Secondlj^  out  of  love  to  my  soul.  He  has  taken  all 
my  sins  and  cast  them  behind  His  back. 

Not  behind  my  back.  The  smallest  devil  in  hell 
could  find  them  before  I  got  to  bed  to-night,  and 
haunt  me,  if  they  w^ere  behind  my  back,  but  thej? 
can't  get  behind  the  Almighty,  behind  God's  back. 

BLOTTED  OUT  AS  A  CLOUD. 

The  third  expression  is,  'I  will  blot  them  out  like 
a  thick  cloud." 

You  see  a  cloud  to-night,  and  you  get  up  early 
in  the  morning,  and  it  is  gone.  Can  you  find  the 
cloud?  Never.  There  may  be  other  clouds,  but 
that  cloud  will  never  appear  in  the  history  of  the 


8  Short  Talks  bj^  D.  L.  Moody. 

universe.  God  says  He  will  blot  sin  out  like  a  thick 
cloud. 

REMOVED    AS    FAR    AS    EAST    AND    WEST. 

And  the  fourth  expression,  I  like  that  best. 

I  wish  some  one  would  figure  it  up  for  me,  and  tell 
me  how  far  the  east  is  from  the  w^est.  I  don't  know 
much  about  astronomy,  but  astronomers  tell  us 
that  light  travels  at  the  rate  of  188,000  miles  a  sec- 
ond,— I  can't  take  that  in, — and  that  the  light  of 
some  planets  has  been  traveling  for  nearlj^  6,000 
3^ears,  and  hasn't  got  here  yet;  and  some  one  has  just 
discovered  that  that  is  just  the  fringe  on  the  gar- 
ments of  our  God.  How  much  farther  the  east  is 
from  the  west  than  the  planets  are  from  the  world 
I  can't  tell.  Think  of  it!  God  takes  our  sins  and 
puts  them  away  as  far  as  from  the  east  to  the  west. 

Don't  cover  your  sins;  don't  hide  them.  You 
cannot  dig  a  grave  so  deep  but  that  they  will  have  a 
resurrection  some  time.  God  will  touch  some  secret 
spring  of  your  conscience,  and  say:  "Son,  remem- 
ber," and  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  they  will  all  come 
back,  every  one  of  them! 

I  have  been  twice  in  the  jaws  of  death.  Once  I 
had  gone  down  in  the  river  the  second  time,  and 
was  going  down  the  third  time  when  I  was  rescued, 
and  quicker  than  a  flash  everything  I  had  said  and 
done  came  before  me!  How  a  whole  life  can  be 
crowded  into  a  second  of  time,  I  do  not  know. 
Again,  in  Chicago,  just  in  the  jaws  of  death  I  was 
saved,  and  again  my  whole  life  came  before  me  like 
a  flash,  from  my  earliest  childhood  up.  Everything  I 
had  said,  everj^thing  I  had  heard,  and  everything  I 
had  done,  all  came  back. 


The  Blessing  of  Sins  Forgiven.  9 

Some  years  ago  I  met  a  man,  aged  ^^  years,  in 
Chicago,  who,  twelve  years  previously  had  fled 
from  Canada  because  of  a  crime  he  had  committed. 
For  twelve  years  he  had  been  trying  to  cover  up  his 
sin,  but  it  pursued  him  night  and  day.  Finally  he 
asked  me  to  advise  him.  I  told  him  to  make  restitu- 
tion of  the  money  he  had  stolen,  and  to  make  an 
honest  confession. 

You  should  have  seen  the  tears  of  joy  run  down 
that  man's  face  when  he  found  that  he  could  be  for- 
given and  have  his  sin  put  away.  What  a  terrible 
time  he  had  been  having  those  twelve  years!  He 
had  been  trying  to  cover  his  sin  in  man's  wsly. 

If  you  want  your  sins  blotted  out  completelj^,  3'ou 
must  make  a  clean  breast  of  them  all.  "If  we  con- 
fess our  sins  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness. 
The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  cleanseth 
from  all  sin." 

I  read  of  an  ex-prisoner  who  had  secured  a  position 
as  night  watcliman  in  a  store. 

One  of  his  prison  associates  came  to  him,  and 
attempted  to  persuade  the  man  to  leave  the  doors 
open,  so  that  he  could  rob  the  store.  The  watch- 
man refused,  and  his  former  companion  threatened 
to  tell  his  employers  about  his  past  life.  The  watch- 
man laughed  in  his  teni2Dter's  face  and  replied  : 

"Go  and  tell  them.  I  have  nothing  to  fear,  for 
they  knew  all  of  my  past  life  before  they  hired  me." 

0,  man,  woman,  confess  your  sins  to  God!  Then 
you  shall  know  what  it  is  to  have  heaven  in  your 
soul.  Blessed — happy — is  the  man  whose  trans- 
gression is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered. 


THE  FIFTH  CHAPTER  OF  MARK, 

In  the  5th  chapter  of  Mark — 1  call  that  the  high- 
water  mark  of  that  Gospel — there  are  three  persons 
that  were  verj"  far  gone  in  the  sight  of  man.  One 
was  possessed  of  devils,  another  was  possessed  of  an 
incurable  disease,  and  the  other  was  dead.  You 
couldn't  get  three  harder  cases  than  that  anywhere, 
could  you?  If  we  had  them  with  lis  now,  we  would 
put  the  first  in  a  madhouse,  the  second  in  a  hospital 
for  incurables,  and  the  third  one  in  the  grave;  but 
Christ  was  a  match  for  the  whole  three.  Don't 
think  anj^  man  or  woman  is  a  hard  case,  and  God 
can't  save  him.  Don't  \.ei  Satan  make  j^ou  believe 
that  there  is  Siny  one  beyond  the  reach  of  God, 
that  cannot  be  saved.  It  is  a  lie  from  hell.  He  can 
save  unto  the  uttermost. 

DEVILS. 

Take  that  demoniac  possessed  with  devils.  They 
didn't  have  insane  hospitals  then,  but  the^^  had 
tried  to  take  him,  they  had  tried  to  chain  him.  Like 
Samson,  he  would  break  the  fetters;  they  couldn't 
keep  him.  He  tore  his  clothes  off  himself,  and  had 
his  dwelling-place  among  the  tombs.  That  is 
where  every  sinner  lives — among  the  dead.  He  was 
a  terror  to  all  the  women  in  that  country.  Their 
hearts  jumped  up  into  their  mouths  ever}"  time  the}" 
passed  by  the  graveyard.  This  man  came  howling 
out  of  the  tombs;  wh}^,  it  would  make  their  blood  run 
cold.     Little  children  were  afraid  if  they  heard  his 

(10) 


The  Fifth  Chapter  of  Mark.  ii 

cry  in  Ihe  divstance.  But  Christ  came  that  way, 
and  to  show  how  the  man  was  under  the  very  power 
of  the  devil,  he  said: 

"Art  Thou  come  hither  to  torment  us  before  the 
time?" 

That  shows  a  man  is  under  the  power  of  the  devil, 
when  he  thinks  that  Christ  has  come  to  torment  him. 
Sinners  have  a  false  idea  of  Christ;  they  think  He  is 
their  enemy.  But  He  is  their  best  friend.  The 
Son  of  God  left  the  bosom  of  the  Father  not  to  torment 
men,  but  to  save  them.  He  came  to  snap  the  fetters 
and  set  every  captive  man  free.  He  went  out  of  His 
way,  probably,  over  into  that  coast  just  to  save 
that  man. 

I  get  a  good  deal  of  comfort  out  of  the  fact  that 
when  He  told  those  devils  to  come  out,  they  had  to 
move  out.  He  has  powxr  over  devils.  When  He 
said:  "All  power  on  earth  is  given  unto  Me,"  I 
believe  He  meant  what  He  said.  He  came  to  destroy 
the  works  of  the  devil,  and  He  will  do  it  if  we  will 
let  Him. 

Did  you  ever  notice  that  the  devils  prayed,  and 
He  answered  their  praj^er?  They  wanted  to  go  into 
the  herd  of  swine,  and  He  let  them  go.  And  the 
citizens  of  that  country  prayed  that  He  would  depart 
out  of  their  coasts,  and  He  answered  their  pra^^er. 
But  this  man,  when  he  was  clothed  and  in  his  right 
mind,  prayed  that  he  might  go  with  Christ;  he 
wanted  to  be  near  Him — it  shows  he  had  really 
become  a  Christian.  "No,"  Christ  says,  "j^ou  go 
home  and  tell  your  friends  what  great  things  the 
Lord  has  done  for  3'Ou."  He  did  not  answer  his 
prayer. 


li  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

Christmas  Evans,  that  Welsh  preacher,  pictures 
the  man  coming  home.  The  little  children  out 
plaj^ing — his  own  children — catch  sight  of  him,  and 
thej^  run  into  the  house  and  cry: 

"0,  mother,  mother,  father  is  coming!  He  will 
kill  every  one  of  us." 

The  mother  slips  to  the  door  and  shuts  it,  and  puts 
a  bar  and  a  chain  across  it,  and  says: 

"Mary,  come  away  from  the  window!  Don't  let 
him  see  you." 

And  Mary  says:  "Mother,  I  don't  believe  it  is 
father  after  all.  He  is  clothed  like  other  people,  and 
he  is  walking  in  the  footpath." 

Before,  w^hen  he  came  home',  he  w^ould  come  in  a 
bee  line  over  ditches  and  hedges,  rush  into  the  house, 
and  knock  his  wife  down,  and  kick  the  children. 
They  couldn't  believe  it  was  he,  such  a  wonderful 
change  had  come  over  him.  The  devils  had  gone 
out,  and  Chrivst  had  come  in. 

When  he  gets  to  the  house  he  fnids  the  door  bolted 
and  barred  and  chained  and  fastened,  and  he  knocks 
gently. 

"Mary,  Mary,  let  me  in!  I  haven't  come  to  hurt 
you.  I  have  come  to  tell  you  w^hat  great  things 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  done  for  me.  I  have  come  to 
tell  you  how  He  cast  the  devils  out  of  me." 

With  fear  and  trembling  the  wife  opens  the  door, 
and  she  can  hardh"  believe  her  eyes.  His  voice  is 
as  sweet  as  it  was  the  daj^  he  married  her;  how  it 
just  thrills  her  soul!  That  face  is  lit  up  with  the  light 
of  another  w^orld.  She  leaps  into  his  arms,  they 
embrace  each  other,  and  then  he  sits  down  and 
begins  to  tell  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  him,  be- 


The  Fifth  Chapter  of  Mark.  13 

cause  the  Lord  told  him  to  go  home  and  tell  his 
friends.  And  I  see  the  little  children  creep  up  around 
him,  a  little  timid,  a  little  afraid  lest  they  maj^  get 
a  rap  over  the  head,  as  they  often  did;  but  by  and 
by  the}^  gather  around  him,  and  he  has  them  up  on 
his  knees,  and  they  look  up  into  his  face.  They 
have  their  father  back  again! 

Do  you  know,  we  have  men  that  are  possessed  with 
devils  as  much  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  Christ  on 
earth?  They  are  legion;  the  intellectual  devil,  the 
whiskey  devil,  and  the  devils  of  lust  and  passion. 
These  infernal  devils.  He  can  cast  them  out.  Let 
us  pray  Him  to  do  it.  Let  us  believe  He  can  and 
will  do  it. 


DISEASE. 

But  go  a  little  farther,  and  here  is  this  woman  who 
has  been  twelve  years  suffering  untold  misery.  If 
they  had  had  patent  medicines  in  those  days,  she 
would  have  tried  all  the  different  kinds  on  the  mar- 
ket. She  had  probably  been  up  to  Damascus  and 
been  treated  by  the  leading  physicians  there,  gone 
up  to  Jerusalem,  and  been  treated  b}^  the  physi- 
cians there,  and  she  "suffered  many  things  of  many 
physicians."  They  had  got  all  her  money,  and 
hadn't  done  her  any  godd.  That  was  a  hopeless 
case,  wasn't  it?  An  issue  of  blood  for  twelve  years. 
But  some  one  told  her  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  how 
He  had  power  to  raise  the  dead,  how  He  had  power 
to  cleanse  the  leper,  and  how  He  had  power  to  make 
the  blind  see  and  the  deaf  to  hear,  and  perhaps  He 


14  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

could  heal  her.  Faith  rose  up  in  her  soul,  but  she 
asked:  "What  will  He  charge  me?"  Her  friend 
said  He  wouldn't  charge  anything;  all  she  had  to  do 
was  to  go  and  speak  to  Him. 

I  can  see  her  getting  down  an  old  faded  sunbonnet 
— she  hadn't  had  a  new  bonnet  for  a  long  time — the 
doctors  got  all  her  mone3\     Her  children  S3.y: 

"Now,  mother,  I  hope  you  are  not  going  to  run 
after  any  doctor.  You  have  been  twelve  j^ears 
running  after  them,  and  you  have  grown  worse  a^ll 
the  while." 

"I  am  going  to  Jesus,"  she  sa3'S.  "I  understand 
He  is  about  a  mile  or  two  away,  and  I  am  going  to 
see  if  He  can  heal  me." 

"Don't  be  carried  away  with  that  deceiver.  He 
can't  help  you." 

But  she  had  faith,  and  I  see  her  elbowing  her  wa3^ 
through  the  crowd,  pushing  up  towards  Him.  A 
great  able-bodied  man  pushes  her  back,  and  says: 

"Don't  3^ou  know  other  people  want  to  get  near 
Him  as  well  as  j^ourself?" 

She  pays  no  attention  to  am^thing  that  he  says, 
but  she  just  thinks  to  herself — 

"If  I  can  just  touch  the  fringe  of  His  garment,  I 
will  be  made  whole." 

There  wasn't  a  thing  that  the  Son  of  God  found 
on  this  earth  that  pleased  Him  as  faith  did.  As 
some  one  has  said,  "faith  could  lead  Him  anywhere, 
could  get  anything  out  of  Him."  He  alwa\^s  cashes 
that  at  sight,  not  forty  daj^s  after  sight.  This 
woman  had  faith,  and  when  she  got  near  enough, 
she  reached  out  her  bon\^  arm  from  under  her  thread- 
bare shawl,  and  touched  the  fringe  of  His  garment. 


The  Fifth  Chapter  of  ]\Iark  15 

»nd  in  a  moment  vshe  was  made  whole,  healed  of  all 
her  disease! 

And  Jesus  turned  around  and  said,  "Who  touched 
me?" 

I  can  imagine  one  sa3^s,  "Lord,  that  is  a  strange 
question.  Look  at  the  crowds  that  have  been 
thronging  3"ou." 

Do  3^ou  know  there  were  people  in  those  da^^s,  just 
as  there  are  now,  who  couldn't  tell  the  difference 
between  the  touch  of  the  crowd  and  the  touch  of 
faith?  Do  3^ou  know  there  are  some  in  this  audience 
who  don't  know  anything  about  what  is  going  on 
here,  while  others  are  reaching  out  the  hand  of  faith 
and  appropriating  the  blessings  of  God,  and  their 
souls  are  being  healed?  And  this  woman,  she  fell 
on  her  face  and  confessed  all.  Jesus  knew  who 
had  touched  Llim;  He  knew  the  hand  of  faith  that 
had  been  upon  Him,  but  He  wanted  her  testimony 
there.  Man,  reach  out  the  hand  of  faith  and  touch 
that  Son  of  God  now,  and  3^ou,r  soul  shall  be  healed. 
He  is  able.  No  incurable  cases,  if  j^ou  pleasel 
No  one  be\^ond  His  reach  and  beyond  His  power! 

DEATH. 

But  now  Jesus  passes  on  to  the  house  of  Jairus. 
When  the\^  drew  near  the  house,  some  servants  came 
out  and  said: 

"Don't  trouble  the  Master.  It  is  all  over.  The 
maid  is  dead." 

It  looked  as  if  the  Son  of  God  was  too  late,  didn't 
it?  My  dear  friend.  He  has  never  been  too  late  yet; 
He  is  aiwaj^s  on  time.  He  got  there  just  at  the 
appointed   time.     I  haven't  any  doubt  but  away 


i6  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  IVIoody. 

back  in  the  secret  councils  of  eternity  it  was  planned 
He  should  get  to  Jairus'  house  just  at  that  hour. 

When  He  told  them  she  wasn't  dead,  they  laughed 
Him  to  scorn.  Man,  death  canH  exist  where  Christ 
is;  do  you  know  that?  I  remember  a  good  man^^ 
3^ears  ago,  when  a  young  man,  I  was  called  sud- 
denly to  officiate  at  a  funeral  in  Chicago.  There 
were  going  to  be  quite  a  few  business  men  at  the 
funeral,  and  they  were  not  Christians,  and  I  said  to 
myself.  Now  will  be  my  opportunity  to  get  hold  of 
those  men.  I  took  my  Bible,  and  read  through  the 
four  Gospels  hunting  for  one  of  Christ's  funeral 
sermons.  It  never  dawned  on  me  until  that  day 
that  He  never  preached  a  funeral  sermon  while  here 
on  earth.  He  broke  up  every  funeral  He  ever 
attended.  The  dead  men  would  leap  right  up  out  of 
their  graves  at  His  word.  He  will  smash  up  the 
undertaking  business  when  He  comes  back.  Death 
can't  exist  where  He  is.  I  used  to  think  death 
dragged  Him  into  the  grave,  but  He  went  into  the 
grave  after  death  and  robbed  the  grave  of  its  victim. 
That  is  what  He  went  into  the  grave  for — to  over- 
throw death.  Death  hadn't  any  power  over  Him. 
"If  any  man  keep  My  sajangs,  he  shall  never  see 
death"     Never! 

He  went  into  that  room  where  death  was,  and  it  fled 
before  Him.  He  spoke  to  that  child  and  said, 
"Maid,  arise,"  and  she  arose. 

Man,  are  j^ou  dead?  He  can  quicken  you.  He 
will  impart  life  to  3^ou  to-night  if  you  v/ill  let  Him. 
Bring  your  death  to  Him,  and  get  life.  Bring  3^our 
darkness  to  Him,  and  get  light.  Bring  your  trouble 
to  Him,  and  get  peace.    Bring  j^our  sorrow  to  Him, 


b 


The  Fifth  Chapter  of  Mark.  17 

and  get  jo3^  There  isn't  a  thing  that  your  soul 
needs  but  that  it  is  all  in  Christ.  Bring  on  your 
men  possessed  of  devils,  bring  on  your  incurables, 
bring  on  your  dead.  The  Son  of  Man  is  able  to  cast 
cut  devils,  and  heal  the  sick,  and  raise  the  dead. 
Oh,  what  a  Savior  we  have,  and  what  power  He  has} 


THE  GIFT  OF  POWER. 

The  late  Dr.  Gordon,  of  Boston,  once  said  at 
Northfield  that  as  j^ou  walk  up  the  thoroughfares  of: 
(••ur  great  cities  you  often  see  the  sign, 

"This  store  to  let,  with  or  without  power." 

Back  in  the  building  there  is  an  engnie,  and  if  a 
man  wants  to  manufacture  he  can  hitch  on  to  the 
power;  if  not,  he  can  hire  the  store  without  power. 

Dr.  Gordon  thought  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to 
ask  a  man  who  wants  to  join  the  church  if  he  wants 
to  be  a  member  "with  or  without  power."  If  he  said 
"tvithont  power,"  we  could  honestly  sa}^  we  have 
plenty  of  that  kind  alread3\ 

What  the  church  needs  to-day  is  more  members 
with  power.  "Herein  is  nw  Father  glorified,  that 
ye  bring  forth  much  fruit."  I  have  no  sympathy 
with  the  idea  of  toiling  all  night  and  catching  noth- 
ing. And  yet  nine-tenths  of  Christian  workers, 
not  to  speak  of  church  members  in  general,  never 
think  of  looking  to  the  Holy  Ghost  for  this  power. 

There  is  a  difference  between  strength  and  power. 
Goliath  had  strength;  David  had  power. 

There  is  a  difference  between  influence  and  poiver. 
The  high  priests  and  the  Pharisees  had  influence; 
Peter  and  the  apostles  after  Pentecost  had  power. 

There  is  a  difference  between  the  indicelling  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  His  filling  one  ivith  poiver.  Everj^ 
true  child  of  God,  who  has  been  cleansed  by  the 
blood  of  Christ,  is  a  temple  or  dwelling-place  of  the 

(18) 


The  Gift  of  Power.  19 

Holy  Ghost.  But  yet  he  may  not  have  fuUness  of 
power. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  John,  Nicodemus  went  to 
Jesus  by  night  to  get  Hght,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he 
got  it;  but  he  did  not  receive  it  in  abundance,  or  he 
would  not  have  stayed  in  the  Sanhedrin  three  j^-ears, 
listening  to  all  the  mean,  cutting  things  they  said  of 
Jesus.  It  took  the  death  of  Christ  to  bring  him  out 
manfully  and  boldly. 

In  the  seventh  chapter  of  John  we  find  a  different 
character.  That  last  day  of  the  feast  Christ  stood 
in  the  temple,  crjang,  "If  any  man  thirst  let  him 
come  unto  me  and  drink,  and  out  of  his  belly  shall 
flow  rivers  of  living  water." 

A  man  like  that  would  not  have  stayed  in  the 
Sanhedrin  three  years;  he  would  have  smashed  up 
every  Sanhedrin  on  earth.  Four  walls  cannot 
contain  the  influence  of  a  man  who  is  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  power.  ''Rivers  of  living  water!'' 
Think  of  the  rivers  that  flow^ed  from  C.  H.  Spurgeon 
and  George  Muller! 

Let  us  pray  for  this  power.  The  disciples  were  told 
to  wait  because  the  Spirit  was  not  yet  given,  bui  we 
have  not  to  wait  now,  because  the  Holy  Spirit  is  here. 

THE  NEED  OF  POWER. 

The  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  one  thing  that 
can  save  the  Church  and  save  our  country.  We 
need  more  preaching  in  this  power,  not  in  the  power 
of  human  eloquence  and  mental  gifts.  We  need 
more  singing  in  power,  the  way  that  the  Levites 
were  singing  when  the  Shekinah  came  and  filled  the 
temple  of  Solomon.     Many  a  church  has  lost  power 


20  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood}^ 

because  of  an  ungodly  choir,  or  a  choir  that  sings  in. 
an  unknown  tongue.  Fathers  and  mothers  need 
power  to  live  right  and  teach  their  children  the  waj^s 
of  righteousness. 

I  wish  we  were  all  dead  in  earnest.  What  does  a 
hiuigr}^  man  Avant?  Mone3^?  No.  Fame?  No 
Good  clothes?  No;  he  wants  food.  What  does  a 
thirsty  man  want?  Stocks  and  bonds?  No;  he 
wants  water.  When  we  really  hunger  and  thirst 
for  Holy  Ghost  power,  nothing  else  will  satisfy  us. 

God  has  commanded  us  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  We  have  His  promise  that  He  will  pour 
water  on  him  that  is  thirst3\  Claim  that  promise 
now  in  faith,  fulfill  the  conditions  laid  down  in  the 
Word,  and  God  will  not  disappoint  you, 


NOTHING  TOO  HARD  FOR  GOD. 

''Ah,  Lord  God!  behold  Thou  hast  made  the 
heaven  and  the  earth  by  Thy  great  power  and  by 
Thy  stretched  out  arm;  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for 
Thee"  (Jeremiah  xxxii:  17). 

Jeremiah  had  chmbed  to  a  very  high  mountain 
peak,  ahhough  he  was  in  a  dungeon  at  the  time  that 
he  made  this  praj^er.  Very  often  when  we  are  cast 
down,  and  are  in  our  lowest  position  in  the  sight  of 
the  world,  God  lifts  us  to  the  verj^  heights  of  glory. 

I  used  to  think  that  I  should  like  to  have  lived  in 
the  days  of  some  of  those  Old  Testament  prophets. 
I  have  a  great  admiration  for  the  men  who  stood  up 
boldly  for  God  in  those  dark  days.  But  I  long  ago 
got  over  wishing  to  have  lived  in  their  day.  When 
a  prophet  makes  his  appearance  on  the  horizon  j^ou 
may  know  that  the  world  is  about  as  bad  as  it  can  be. 

When  Moses,  that  prince  of  preachers,  appeared 
in  Egypt,  Israel's  condition  seemed,  humanlj^  speak- 
ing, to  be  hopeless.  There  was  not  one  star  to  re- 
lieve the  midnight  darkness.  Israel  had  settled 
down  apparently  to  the  idea  that  they  were  to  be 
bond  slaves  forever.  The  promises  to  Abraham 
and  Isaac  and  Jacob  must  have  died  out  of  their 
memory,  and  their  hopes  must  have  perished.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Moses  appeared. 

Again  when  the  star  was  fading  away  in  Shiloh, 
and  Eli's  family  drifted  away  from  God,  Samuel 
appeared.  Later  still,  when  it  looked  as  though 
the  whole  nation  had  forgotten  God,  when  Ahab 
and  all  the  roj^al  court  had  gone  after  Baal,  Elijah 
appeared. 

So  it  was  in  the  days  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.     It 

(21) 


22  Short  Talks  b^^  D.  L.  Moody. 

was  as  dark  as  midnight.  Here  was  this  weeping 
prophet.  The  people  jeered  and  sneered  at  him,  and 
ridiculed  his  tears  and  his  pra3^ers,  and  at  last  the3^ 
cast  him  into  a  prison;  and  if  God  had  not  been  with 
him  the}"  would  have  slain  him.  They  called  him  a 
pessimist.  Nebuchadnezzar  had  already  brought 
up  his  mighty  legions  from  Babylon  and  had  laid 
siege  to  the  city.  In  a  little  while  the  nation  was  to 
go  back  into  bondage  on  account  of  their  sins  and 
iniquities.  Undoubtedly  if  thej^  had  listened  to 
this  weej^ing  prophet,  as  he  declared  the  warnings 
of  God,  the  qWn  and  the  nation  would  have  been 
spared,  for  in  all  ages  when  man  repents  and  turns 
from  his  sins  God  hears  his  cry  and  turns  his  cap- 
tivit}^  But  the  people  would  not  hear  the  word  of 
God,  and  cast  Jeremiah  into  prison,  and  in  prison 
he  makes  this  wonderful  praj^er.  He  had  a  wonder- 
ful vision  of  God's  marvelous  power. 

The  first  time  I  went  across  the  continent  to  Cali- 
fornia, I  thought  what  a  vast  country  this  is!  After- 
wards when  I  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  saw  that 
mighty  ocean,  I  thought  what  a  wonderful  God  I 
have.  Yet  this  planet  is  a  mere  ball  thrown  from 
the  hand  of  its  Creator.  This  earth  is  one  of  the 
smallest  of  the  planets,  and  a  million  of  them  could 
be  thrown  into  the  sun  and  there  w^ould  still  be  room 
for  three  hundred  thousand  more.  Yet  we  are  told 
that  there  are  eighty  million  other  suns  in  the  uni- 
verse. The  mind  cannot  take  it  all  in.  There 
is  nothing  in  heaven,  earth,  or  hell,  too  hard  for 
our  God,  and  it  is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  start  out 
with  this  thought  that  God  is  able  to  do  above  all 
that  we  dare  think  or  ask. 


Nothing  too  Hard  for  God.  23 

It  jDlea^ed  God  to  have  Jeremiah  bring  forth  this 
argument  in  praj^er,  for  we  read  in  verse  twenty- 
seven:  *'Behold,  I  am  the  LORD,  the  God  of  all 
flesh:  is  there  anything  too  hard  for  Me?" 

How  searching  are  God's  questions!  Those  He 
put  to  Job  are  perfectly  overwhelming.  It  is  worth 
going  to  prison  to  hear  God  speak  as  He  spoke  to 
Jeremiah. 

Some  of  3^ou  are  in  fields  of  labor  which  you  think 
are  very  peculiar  and  hard.  You  are  \n  a  worldly 
church,  where  j^our  testimon3^  seems  smothered  b3^ 
false  doctrines  and  creeds.  New  Yorkers  say  that 
theirs  is  the  hardest  city  on  this  continent  to  reach. 
Many  of  the  middle  class  have  gone  over  to  New 
Jerse}^  to  live,  leaving- the  very  rich  and  the  very 
poor  behind.  In  one  part  of  the  city  there  are  a 
quarter  of  a  million  Jews,  and  there  are  so  many 
foreigners  and  so  much  whiske^^  that  the  obstacles 
seem*  insurmountable.  But  let  us  fall  back  on 
Jeremiah's  words: 

"There  is  nothing  too  hard  for  God." 

Think  of  it!  Do  j^ou  suppose  that  New  York 
is  as  dark  as  Babylon  was  when  Daniel  went  there? 
And  yet  God  used  that  man  to  illuminate  the  whole 
city,  and  lead  that  great  monarch,  Nebuchadnezzar, 
unto  the  God  of  the  Hebrews.  Think  of  the  obstacles 
he  had  to  encounter!  A  despised  Hebrew  captive, 
and  yet  he  felt  there  was  nothing  too  hard  for  God, 
and  God  stood  by  him,  and  for  twenty-five  hundred 
3^ears  his  light  has  been  shining,  and  is  brighter 
to-day  than  ever. 

Boston  people  say  that  theirs  is  the  most  difficult 
cit^^  on  this  continent  to  work  in,  that  there  is  more 


24  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

unbelief,  more  skepticism  and  other  "isms"  there 
than  in  any  other  city.  Fall  back  on  Jeremiah'sword: 

''There  is  nothing  too  hard  for  God." 

Is  Boston  as  hard  as  Egj^pt  when  Joseph  was 
taken  there?  The  whole  land  was  lit  up  bj?-  that 
man  because  he  believed  that  nothing  was  too  hard 
for  his  God,  and  he  let  God  use  him. 

In  Chicago,  too,  they  will  tell  you  that  that  is  the 
most  difficult  city  on  this  continent  to  reach.  Ninety- 
one  per  cent  of  the  population  is  either  foreign  or  of 
foreign  descent.  There  are  forty  thousand  Bohe- 
mians, and  sixty  thousand  Italians,  and  one  hundred 
thousand  Germans,  in  separate  quarters  of  the  cit3\ 
Almost  everj^  tongue  under  heaven  is  spoken  there. 
The  theatres  are  open  on  the  Sabbath,  every  barge 
and  train  is  chartered  for  Sabbath  excursions, 
and  nearly  every  band  of  music  is  out.  People  say 
that  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  men.  So  it  is,  but  it  is 
not  bej^ond  the  reach  of  our  God. 

Do  3^ou  think  Chicago  is  as  dark  as  Samaria  in 
the  days  of  Elijah,  when  Ahab  and  his  court  had 
gone  after  Baal,  and  people  were  banished  from  the 
country  or  put  to  death  because  they  loved  God? 
The  seven  thousand  who  had  not  bowed  the  knee  to 
Baal  were  hidden  away  somewhere,  but  God  can 
use  His  people,  and  how  bright  the  light  when  it 
shines  out  in  the  darkness.  These  men  shine  out 
because  they  believed  that  nothing  was  too  hard  for 
God. 

I  is  a  great  mistake  to  be  looking  at  obstacles 
when  we  have  such  a  God  to  look  at.  How  many 
people  in  New  York  and  Boston  are  spending  whole 
nights  and  days  in  visiting  the  abandoned  and  the 


Nothing  too  Hard  for  God.  25 

outcast?  Perhaps  there  has  never  been  a  day  when 
so  much  work  was  done  in  these  dark  cities  as  during 
the  past  twenty  years.  Our  God  is  just  the  same  as 
He  was  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  and  if  we  call  upon 
Him  in  faith  I  believe  that  these  dark  waves  will  go 
rolling  back  into  the  pit  whence  they  came. 

Look  at  Israel  in  the  time  of  Saul.  The  people 
forgot  God,  but  David  came  along,  and  believed 
that  nothing  was  too  hard  for  God,  and,  meeting  the 
uncircumcised  Philistine,  slew  him.  No  army 
could  stand  before  Israel  when  there  was  no  strange 
God  among  them,  but  sin  brought  the  people  into 
weakness  and  bondage.  The  same  thing  will  hap- 
pen to  LIS  if  we  allow  sin  to  come  into  our  lives.  Let 
us  keep  ourselves  unspotted  from  the  world  and  look 
to  God  to  do  things  which  man  cannot  do.  AVho 
would  have  thought  that  God  could  have  fed  three 
million  people  in  that  desert — homeless,  shelterless, 
shoeless.  But  God  gave  them  bread  from  heaven, 
and  water  from  the  rock,  feeding  them  and  clothing 
them  and  bringnig  them  safely  through  the  desert. 
Our  God  is  the  same  to-day.  He  constantly  refers  to 
that  scene,  so  as  to  remind  us  of  His  power.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  hard  field  if  we  are  right  with 
God. 

Look  at  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
The  Captain  of  their  salvation,  the  Prince  of  Life, 
had  been  slain  by  an  ignominious  death,  and  had 
been  put  into  the  grave.  He  had  risen,  but  no  one 
of  prominence  in  the  city  believed  it.  A  few  unknown 
men  and  women,  who  professed  to  be  His  disciples, 
believed  it,  but  there  were  no  scholars  or  men  of 
letters  among  them.     But  those  few  men  believed 


26  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

that  nothing  was  too  hard  for  God,  and  they  prayed, 
and  shook  the  city  to  its  foundations.  The  fires  of 
Pentecost  are  still  burning,  and  they  came  in  answer 
to  praj^er. 

Some  think  that  their  husbands  are  too  far  gone 
in  unbelief  to  be  reached,  or  that  their  brotliers  are 
too  steeped  in  infidelity  to  be  brought  back.  I 
believe  that  it  is  dishonoring  to  God  to  talk  in  ^'^ai 
wsiy.  Look  at  Saul  of  Tarsus,  present  at  the  killing 
of  Stephen  and  going  off  with  letters  to  Damascus. 
One  ray  of  light  from  God  smites  him,  and  the  per- 
secutor of  Christ  becomes  the  champion  of  the  cross 
and  one  of  the  grandest  preachers  that  this  world 
has  ever  seen.  These  men  who  have  spoken  bitterly 
against  Christ  and  Christianity  may  become  mighty 
instruments  in  God's  hands  for  doing  His  work  if  we 
will  only  have  faith  to  believe  that  our  God  is  able  to 
bring  about  the  reformation. 

People  say  they  have  sinned,  and  get  discouraged; 
that  their  life  is  so  dark  and  gloom}^  Did  j^ou  ever 
think  how  dark  it  must  have  been  before  God  created 
light?  But  God  said,  "Let  there  be  light."  Cannot 
He  drive  away  the  darkness,  and  the  fog,  and  the 
mist  that  has  gathered  round  your  path?  Do  not  be 
talking  about  the  difficulties  in  your  life  when  you 
have  such  a  God  to  call  upon.  He  says,  "Call  unto 
Me,  and  I  will  answer  thee,  and  will  show  thee  great 
things,  and  difficult,  which  thou  knowest  not." 

It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  mighty  God  to  permit 
sinful  men  like  you  and  me  to  call  upon  Him.  When 
men  get  great  we  cannot  get  a  chance  to  call  upon 
them,  but  it  is  not  so  with  our  God.  He  commands 
us  to  call.     Manasseh,  son  of  Hezekiah,  filled  Jeru- 


Nothing  too  Hard   for  God.  27 

salem  with  blood,  and  is  supposed  to  have  had  Isaiah 
sawn  asunder.  Manasseh  was  taken  a  prisoner  to 
Babylon,  and  there,  in  his  fetters  of  brass,  he  called 
upon  his  father's  God,  and  God  turned  his  captivit}-, 
brought  him  back  to  Jerusalem,  and  put  him  on  the 
throne.  If  God  will  hear  a  wicked  Manasseh  and 
answer  his  prayer,  will  He  not  save  every  man  and 
woman  to-day  who  calls  upon  Him? 

But  perhaps  your  jirayers  do  not  seem  to  be 
answered.  There  is  a  reason  for  it.  Jeremiah's 
pra3^ers  were  answered  because  he  was  right  with 
God,  but  I  believe  that  a  great  many  of  our  prayers 
weary  God.  Mark  that.  They  are  a  burden  and 
an  abomination  unto  Him,  for  "if  I  regard  iniquit}^ 
in  my  heart  the  Lord  will  not  hear  me."  If  there  is 
some  cursed  sin  in  your  life,  and  j^ou  are  living  in 
willful  disobedience  to  God,  you  cannot  expect  Him 
to  hear  and  answer  your  pra3^er. 

If  there  is  anything  in  your  life  which  you  know 
to  be  wrong,  do  not  sleep  until  j^ou  have  the  thing 
settled  with  God.  Then  you  will  get  the  greatest 
blessing  j^ou  have  ever  had  on  earth.  God  delights 
to  give  gifts  to  the  sons  of  men.  "He  that  spared 
not  His  own  son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all, 
how  shall  He  not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all 
things?"  Mark,  God  gave  His  Son  without  our 
asking,  and  now  with  Him  will  He  not  freeh^  give  us 
all  things?  Let  us  expect  God  to  hccir  and  answer 
our  pra3^ers  because  we  have  turned  awa^^  from 
everything  that  is  contrar^^  to  His  will,  and  because 
we  believe  that  nothing  is  too  hard  for  our  God. 


STEPS  IN  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  ISRAEL. 

"And  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt  among  the 
Canaanites,  Hittites,  and  Amorites,  and  Perizzites, 
and  Hivites,  and  Jebusites:  and  the^^  took  their 
daughters  to  be  their  wives,  and  gave  their  daughters 
to  their  sons,  and  served  their  gods.  And  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and 
forgat  the  Lord  their  God,  and  served  Baalim  and 
the  groves.  Therefore  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was 
hot  against  Israel  and  he  sold  them"  (Judges 
iii:  5-8). 

In  this  passage  we  have  the  six  steps  in  the  down- 
fall of  Israel : 

I.  They  failed  to  drive  out  the  idolaters  as  God  told 
them. 

God  covenanted  with  Abram.  centuries  before, 
that  He  would  give  to  his  seed  all  the  land  of  Canaan , 
"from  the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the  great  river,  the 
river  Euphrates"  (Genesis  xv:  i8).  Moses  in  his 
last  address  to  the  children  of  Israel  had  recalled 
this  wonderful  heritage  in  the  words  found  in  Deu- 
teronomy^ xi:  22-24:  "For  if  ye  shall  diligently  keep 
all  these  commandments  which  I  command  you,  to 
do  them,  to  love  the  Lord  your  God,  to  walk  in  all 
His  ways,  and  to  cleave  unto  Him;  then  will  the 
Lord  drive  out  all  these  nations  from  before  you, 
and  ye  shall  possess  greater  nations  and  mightier 
than  yourselves.  Every  place  whereon  the  soles  of 
your  feet  shall  tread  shall  be  yours:  from  the  wilder- 

(28? 


steps  in  the  Downfall  of  Israel.  29 

ness  and  Lebanon,  from  the  river,  the  river  Eu- 
phrates, even  unto  the  uttermost  sea  shall  your  coast 
be."  After  Moses'  death  the  Lord  appeared  to 
Joshua  and  renewed  the  promise:  "Every  place  that 
the  sole  of  your  foot  shall  tread  upon,  thai  have  I 
given  unto  3^ou,  as  I  said  unto  Moses"  (Joshua  i:  3). 

One  would  think  that  such  a  bright  promise  would 
have  stirred  the  ambition  of  the  nation  to  obey  God, 
but  we  read  in  the  second  chapter  of  Judges  that  one 
after  another  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  neglected  to  drive 
out  the  idolatrous  races  w^ho  dwelt  in  the  land.  For 
four  hundred  years  they  never  took  Jerusalem. 
Mount  Lebanon  in  the  north  was  held  for  centuries. 
Remnants  lived  all  up  and  down  the  land.  Then 
God  sent  an  angel  to  warn  them,  but  in  spite  of  every- 
thing they  wandered  farther  and  farther  away  from 
Him  until  finalty  He  withdrew  His  aid  and  left  those 
nations  to  be  "as  thorns  in  their  sides"  (Judges  ii:  3), 
and  "to  prove  Israel  by  them,  to  know  whether  they 
would  hearken  unto  the  commandments  of  the  Lord, 
which  He  commanded  their  fathers  by  the  hand  of 
Moses"  (Judges  iii:  4), 

BESETTING  SINS, 

They  failed  to  drive  out  their  enemies.  I  believe 
the  reason  so  many  Christians  have  such  a  stormy 
passage,  and  the  Christian  life  is  not  what  they 
expected  it  to  be  when  they  became  Christians,  is 
that  they  don't  drive  out  every  foe  and  every  enemy. 
In  other  words,  they  are  not  more  than  half  con- 
verted. They  don't  get  control  of  their  temper. 
The  god  of  pleasure  seems  to  have  a  grip  upon  them. 


30  Short  Talks  bj-  D.  L.  Moody. 

Lust  and  covetousness  and  selfishness  come  in,  and 
they  don't  get  Tictor3\  Nine-tenths  of  the  battle 
is  won,  it  seems  to  me,  if  we  start  right. 

In  the  forty-first  Psalm  and  the  eleventh  verse  are 
these  words:  "By  this  I  know  that  thou  favorest 
me,  because  mine  enemy  doth  not  triumph  over  me." 
Now  I  believe  that  we  all  have  some  besetting  sin, 
and  what  we  want  is  to  get  victory  over  that  besetting 
sin,  whatever  it  is.  "By  this  we  know  that  God 
favors  us,  that  our  enemy  doth  not  triumph  over  us." 

Is  there  some  habit  marring  your  Christian  life, 
hindering  your  visefulness,  checking  j^our  progress 
in  divine  life?  Then  make  up  your  mind  that  you 
are  going  to  get  victory  over  it.  It  may  look  like  a 
small  enemj^,  but  it  will  become  stronger  and  stronger 
if  not  checked.  You  remember  God  told  Saul  to  go 
and  utterly  destroy  Amalek.  He  did  not  fully  obey 
but  spared  some,  and  in  the  thirty-first  chapter  of 
Samuel  we  read  that  it  was  an  Amalekite  who 
boasted  that  he  had  slain  Saul  and  strij^ped  him  of 
his  crown.  Some  one  has  said  that  it  would  be 
easier  to  find  a  man  that  hadTnot  done  am-  one  sin 
than  to  find  a  man  who  had  done  it  only  once.  Sin 
multiplies.  The  tendency  to  sin  gathers  force  with 
every  new  commission.  So  the  battle  goes  on  in 
every  one  of  us.  We  must  either  overcome  sin,  or 
it  will  overcome  us ;  we  must  decide. 

Have  you  complete^  forsaken  j^our  sins,  or  is 
there  some  enemy  that  you  allow  to  remain  alive? 

2.    They  dwelt  among  the  heathen. 

What  was  God's  call  to  Abraham?  "Get  thee 
fmt"    What  was  His  word  by  Isaiah?     "Go  ye  out 


steps  in  the  Downfall  of  Israel.  31 

.  .  touch  no  luiclean  thing."  And  for  us  the 
-:ormnand  is,  "Conic  out     ...     he  separate." 

Dwelling  among  the  enemies  of  God  was  the 
cause  of  Lot's  trouhles.  How  manj^  Christian 
parents  follow  his  example!  Thej^  mo^x  into  some 
cit^y  for  the  sake  of  the  associations,  it  ma}^  he, 
when  they  know  its  influence  will  hlast  religion 
and  piet}^  Their  children  get  contaminated,  and 
their  religious  life  sapped,  and  then  when  their  hoy 
goes  astra^^  and  prefers  the  saloon  or  the  gamhling- 
den  or  the  hrothel  to  his  own  home,  the  parents  can- 
not understand  it!  Be  separate!  Choose  carefully 
your  companions,  and  do  not,  like  these  Israelites  of 
old,  settle  down  among  the  enemies  of  God. 

May  God  help  us  who  are  joarents  to  pray  con- 
tinually for  our  children,  that  God  will  preserve 
them  from  the  corrupting  influences  of  those 
amongst  whom  they  are  thrown.  But  it  is  folly  to 
pray  for  our  children  if  we  follow  Lot's  example,  and 
run  right  into  the  devil's  camp. 

3.  Then  they  mtermarried  tvith  God's  enemies. 

That  was  an  easy  step  to  take  after  the  other  two. 

Now  from  the  v^ery  beginning  of  the  history  of  the 
chosen  people  we  see  that  intermarriage  with  the 
heathen  always  brought  disaster.  Think  how  it 
was  with  Abraham  and  Hagar;  Esau  and  his 
heathen  wives;  Solomon  and  his  wives.  What 
overthrew  the  house  of  Saul?  AVhat  overthrew  the 
house  of  David?  What  overthrew  the  house  of 
Jehoshaphat?  Intermarrying  with  the  heathen; 
they  did  what  God  told  them  not  to  do.  When 
Jehoshaphat  was  right  in  the  zenith  of  his  power, 


32  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

he  went  down  to  Samaria  and  formed  an  affinity  witli 
Ahab,  and  from  that  time  his  star  began  to  decime, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  the  house  of  Ahab  had 
destroj^ed  all  the  house  of  Judah. 

1  believe  this  is  the  door  by  which  more  woe  and 
unhappiness  enters  into  our  homes  nowadays  than 
almost  any  other.  Many  a  Christian  woman  agrees 
to  go  to  the  theatre  with  her  husband  if  he  will  go  to 
church  with  her  on  Sundaj^.  She  thinks  she  will 
convert  him  in  that  way;  but  my  experience  is  that 
in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  the  wife  loses 
her  assurance,  loses  her  testimonj^,  and  is  dragged 
down  to  her  husband's  level.  I  met  one  lady  who 
married  a  rich  man's  son  although  she  knew  he  was 
addicted  to  drink;  but  she  thought  she  could  save 
him.  Such  mixed  marriages  always  mean  mixed 
principles.  God  has  drawn  the  line  against  them. 
How  can  Christian  men  and  women  expect  God's 
blessing  when  they  go  in  the  face  of  His  commands 
and  join  themselves  in  marriage  with  some  ungodly 
person? 

4.     They  served  the  heathen  gods. 

Instead  of  raising  the  heathen  and  converting 
them  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  they  were 
themselves  dragged  down  into  idolatrj^.  If  there 
is  one  rotten  apple  in  a  barrel  it  will  not  be  long  before 
the  whole  barrel  is  rotten. 

The  Bible  would  lose  half  its  personal  interest  for 
us  if  idolatry  had  ceased  to  be  a  temptation.  But 
though  we  do  not  worship  images  of  wood  and  stone 
in  America,  we  have  our  idols  that  are  just  as  bad. 
John's  words,  "Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from 


Stepss  un  the  Downfall  of  Israel.  33 

idoLs/*  were  addressed  to  Christians.  Any  thing 
that  we  love  more  than  we  love  God  is  an  idol.  With 
some  it  is  the  idol  of  money;  with  others  the  idol  of 
dress,  fashions;  with  others  the  idol  of  pleasure. 
Man  doesn't  need  to  be  commanded  to  worship, 
because  there  is  not  a  nation  so  low  or  so  high  in  the 
-scale  of  civilization  but  worships  some  kind  of  a  god. 
What  man  needs  is  to  have  his  worship  directed 
aright;  to  be  directed  to  worship  the  true  God  in 
spirit  and  truth,  and  not  let  his  heart  run  away  after 
other  gods. 

5.    They  forgot  their  own  God. 

Man's  heart  must  be  occupied  with  something. 
There  is  an  old  adage  that  says:  "If  the  bushel  is 
not  filled  with  wheat,  the  devil  will  fill  it  with  chaff." 
But  there  is  not  room  in  the  heart  for  two  thrones. 
If  Satan  is  enthroned,  there  is  no  room  for  Christ. 

It  is  a  solemn  thing  to  think  that  Christ  does  not 
remain  as  an  uninvited  guest.  He  must  be  invited. 
He  will  stand  at  the  door  knocking,  but  will  not 
force  an  entrance.  And  so  here,  when  the3^  began 
to  worship  heathen  gods,  they  naturally  forgot  God. 
All  thoughts  of  Him  were  crowded  out  of  their  hearts 
by  the  new  affinities  they  had  formed.  They  forgot 
how  He  had  delivered  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt; 
how  He  had  brought  them  through  the  Red  Sea  on 
foot;  how  He  had  supplied  their  wants  for  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness;  how  He  had  led  them  into  the 
promised  land.  His  altars  were  now  neglected, 
while  the  children  of  Israel  crowded  to  the  groves  of 
Baal. 

Did  you  ever  notice  how  often  in  Scripture,  Moses 


34  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  IMoody. 

and  Joshua  and  Nehemiah  and  other  leaders  called 
back  to  memory  God's  past  dealings  with  Israel, 
using  these  as  a  warning  and  as  a  lever  to  induce 
them  to  trust  Him  still?  But  just  as  to-day  young 
people  scoff  at  the  counsel  of  their  parents  and  have 
to  learn  b}^  bitter  experience  what  their  elders  can 
tell  them,  so  warnings  from  history  were  often  lost 
upon  the  Israelites. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  nation  is  just  doing  the 
same  thing  that  Israel  did.  When  worldliness 
comes  in  godliness  goes  out.  They  are  tearing 
down  God's  altar;  they  are  breaking  down  the  Sab- 
bath; and  the  time  has  come  for  us  to  call  a  halt  alj 
through  the  church  of  God.  Every  man  and 
woman  that  believes  in  God  ought  to  take  a  high 
stand — a  firm  stand — now. 

6.  The  sixth  step  was — God  sold  them  into 
bondage. 

Six  times  in  the  book  of  Judges  do  we  find  that  the 
children  of  Israel  did  evil  in  God's  sight,  and  six 
times  were  they  given  over  to  their  enemies  to  be 
chastised.  God  set  a  blessing  or  a  curse  before 
them,  and  they  had  to  reap  the  fruit  of  their  con- 
duct. When  thej^  obeyed  they  were  blessed;  and 
when  they  turned  aside,  judgment  came  upon  them. 
And  there  has  never  been  disloj^alty  to  Christ  that 
has  not  brought  retribution. 

I  believe  that  the  deepest  w^ound  that  the  Son  of 
God  received  while  on  earth  was  from  Judas.  The 
Roman  soldier's  spear  did  not  cut  as  deep  as  the  kiss 
of  Judas.  He  professed  to  be  a  friend,  and  yet  he 
betrayed  his   Lord  and  Master.     We  should  not 


StejDs  in  the  Downfall  of  Israel.  35 

profess  one  thing  and  do  the  opposite.  No  Christian 
has  ever  bought  the  friendship  of  the  world  without 
disloyalty  to  Christ.  Are  we  His  friends?  Then 
let  us  not  show  anj^  quarter  to  His  enemies,  but  let 
us  stand  up  against  them  and  fight  them,  knowing 
that  we  shall  come  off  more  than  conquerors  through 
Him  who  loved  us. 

DELIVERANCE. 

Thank  God  the  story  does  not  end  there.  The 
Bible  tells  us  of  one  more  step,  for  we  read  that 
''when  the  children  of  Israel  cried  unto  the  Lord,  the 
Lord  raised  up  a  deliverer  [margin,  "a  savior"]  to 
deliver  them."  God  never  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
cry  of  a  contrite  heart,  and  there  is  a  Deliverer  for 
you  and  me,  no  matter  under  what  bondage  we 
have  fallen. 


THE  SEVEN  "WALKS"  OF  EPHESIANS. 

I.     The  walk  of  obedience  (Ephesians  ii:  1-2). 

"Without  faith/'  we  read,  "it  is  impossible  to  please 
God/'  and  without  obedience  it  is  impossible  to 
please  Hnn.  You  know  that  when  you  were  a  child 
and  were  disobedient  to  your  parents  you  not  only 
made  them  unhapp3^,  but  were  imhappy  j^ourself. 
There  will  be  no  peace  in  any  soul  until  it  is  willing 
to  obey  the  voice  of  God.  I  believe  that  the  great 
reason  there  is  so  much  trouble  in  this  world  is 
because  we  are  living  in  disobedience  to  God's  laws, 
God's  commands,  and  God's  AVord.  Luther  said, 
"I  would  rather  obey  than  work  miracles/' 

Now,  if  we  look  around  us,  we  see  that  our  life  is 
bounded  by  laws  which  bring  suffering  if  we  disobey 
them.  We  must  obey  the  laws  of  digestion,  or  we 
shall  become  sick.  A  farmer  must  obey  the  laws  01 
nature,  or  he  will  not  have  a  good  crop.  If  the  laws 
of  shipbuilding  are  neglected  the  ship  will  become  a 
wreck.  So  it  is  in  the  intellectual  and  in  the  spiritual 
world.  God  has  set  laws  which  must  be  obej^ed,  or 
else  we  must  suffer  the  penalty. 

We  are  obeying  something  or  other  all  the  time — 
either  our  own  carnal  nature  or  God.  The  essence 
of  sin  is  obedience  to  our  own  lusts  and  desires,  and 
disobedience  to  God.  Did  you  ever  notice  that 
everything  but  man  obeys  God?  In  the  beginning 
God  said,  "Let  there  be  light,"  and  there  was  light. 
He  said,  "Let  the  sea  bring  forth  abundantly,"  and 
the  sea  instantl}^  obeyed  and  brought  forth  abund- 
antly. He  said,  "Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass/' 
and  the  earth  instantly  obeyed.     When  Christ  was 


The  Seven  ''Walks"  of  Ephesians.  37 

on  earth  He  cursed  the  fig  tree,  and  it  instantly 
withered  away.  He  spoke  to  the  sea,  and  the  sea 
instantlj^  obeyed  Him  and  was  calm.  He  rebuked 
the  wind,  and  the  wind  ceased  immediately.  But 
He  spoke  to  man,  and  man  would  not  obey.  That 
is  where  all  the  trouble,  and  all  the  wretchedness, 
and  misery,  and  woe  came,  and  there  will  never  be 
peace  in  your  soul  and  mine  until  we  are  willing  to 
obey  God.  What  God  wants  is  prompt,  literal,  and 
cheerful  obedience,  and  nothing  short  of  that  will 
please  Him.  As  some  one  has  put  it,  ''Do  as  God 
commands,  and  do  all  God  commands."  Partial 
obedience  is  not  enough.  If  the  doctor's  prescription 
were  changed  only  a  little  it  might  mean  death. 

God  cannot  trust  a  man  unless  he  is  obedient. 
Before  Abraham  was  called  to  found  a  new  dispensa- 
tion  he  had  to  learn  to  obey,  though  he  did  not  know 
where  it  would  lead  him  (Heb.  xi:  8).  Over  fifty 
times  it  is  said  of  Moses  that  he  did  "as  the  Lord 
commanded  him."  This  is  the  secret  of  God's  con- 
fidence in  Moses.  Even  Christ  learned  obedience 
in  the  things  that  He  sufff  red,  and  being  made  per- 
fect, became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  all 
hat  obey  him  (Heb.  v:  8-9). 

Remember,  also,  that  blessing  comes  by  obedi- 
ence. As  old  Matthew  Henry  said,  "If  you  live  by 
the  Gospel  prccejDts,  you  can  count  on  the  Gospel 
promises."  Not  until  Naaman  had  obeyed  to  the 
letter  was  his  leprous  flesh  renewed.  And  we  are 
told  of  the  New  Testament  lepers  that  "as  thej^  went," 
in  obedience  to  Christ's  words,  "they  were  cleansed." 
The  reason  that  men  are  not  saved  is  just  because 
tliey  will  not  obc}-  the  voice  of  God. 


38  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

II.  Walk  worthy  of  the.  vocation  wherewith  ye  are 
called  (Eph.  iv:  i). 

More  depends  upon  my  walk  than  upon  my  talk. 
Don't  forget  that.  Talk  is  very  cheap  nowadays. 
"We  talk  cream,  and  live  skim  milk."  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  live  better  than  you  talk.  Some  people 
talk  like  angels,  and  live  like  devJs.  Some  people, 
when  they  are  away  from  home,  are  angelic,  and  j^et 
they  are  like  snapping-turtles  at  home.  No  one  can 
get  on  with  them.  They  snap  at  mother,  brothers, 
and  sisters,  and  if  married,  snap  at  their  husbands. 
Every  one  around  them  has  to  walk  very  carefully 
for  fear  of  offending  them,  they  are  so  touchy. 

We  are  called  to  a  ver^^  high  calling:  "walk  worthy 
of  the  vocation."  Called  to  be  sons  and  daughters 
of  God,  remember  that!  Paul  was  called  suddenly 
to  represent  Jesus  Christ,  and  from  that  time  what  a 
different  man  he  was!  When  Lincoln  was  called  to 
be  President  of  the  United  States  it  was  a  very  high 
call,  and  he  walked  differently  from  what  he  did 
before.  When  General  Grant  was  called  to  the  head 
of  the  American  army,  and  afterwards  to  the  Wliite 
House,  he  walked  worthy  of  the  positions  which  he 
held.  I  heard  one  person  say  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  Grant  to  do  it,  but  he  did  do  it.  But 
your  call  and  mine  is  very  much  higher  than  Lin- 
coln's, much  higher  than  Grant's,  much  higher  than 
that  of  any  king  or  potentate,  for  we  are  called  to 
represent  the  ''King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of  Lords," 
Therefore  let  us  walk  worthy  of  our  vocation. 


The  Seven  ''Walks"  of  Ephesians.  39 

III.     Walk  in  love  (Ephesians  v:  2). 

Jucle  saj's,  "Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God." 
I  believe  that  if  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  would 
keep  themselves  in  the  love  of  God  for  thirty  days 
their  number  would  double  in  no  time.  If  this 
world  is  ever  to  be  conquered,  it  will  be  conquered  by 
love,  and  there  is  no  way  to  preach  love  like  living  it 
in  our  actions.  If  w^e  are  full  of  love,  we  will  be  full 
of  forgiveness;  w^e  will  be  clothed  w4th  humilit}^ 
''Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God." 

The  first  thing  that  the  Spirit  of  God  does  when 
He  begins  to  deal  with  persons  after  they  are  willing 
to  turn  from  their  sins,  is  to  shed  abroad  the  love  of 
God  in  their  hearts.  You  will  find  that  it  will  be  the 
same  kind  of  love  in  all.  I  remember  in  '6j  going  to 
London,  almost  a  stranger.  I  found  the  Christians 
there  had  the  same  kind  of  spirit  and  the  same  kind 
of  love  as  in  New  York  or  Chicago.  If  I  should  go 
to  China,  or  Africa,  or  the  islands  of  the  sea,  I  should 
find  that  every  one  born  of  the  Spirit  would  have  the 
same  spirit  of  love.  In  the  early  church  nothing 
astonished  the  pagans  so  much  as  the  life  of  love 
lived  by  the  Christians.  "Behold,  how  they  love 
one  another,"  they  said;  "they  love  each  other  with- 
out knowing  each  other."  If  you  have  not  that 
spirit  of  love  you  have  not  really  the  Christ  of  the 
Bible  in  your  heart,  because  God  is  love,  and  when 
we  are  born  of  God  w^e  get  God's  Spirit.  When  we 
have  that  Spirit,  it  will  be  natural  for  us  to  love,  just 
as  it  is  the  nature  of  the  dove  to  be  gentle.  "If  any 
man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Chricbt,he  is  none  of  His." 

Spurgeon  once  went  into    he  country  to  visit  a 


40  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

friend  who  had  built  a  new  barn,  and  on  the  barn 
was  a  cupola  upon  which  they  had  put  a  weather 
vane  with  this  text  of  Scripture  on  it:  "God  is  love." 

Spurgeon  said  to  the  man:  ''What  do  you  mean 
by  putting  that  text  of  Scripture  on  the  weather 
vane?  Do  you  mean  that  God's  love  is  as  change- 
able as  the  wind?" 

''Oh,  no/'  was  the  reply;  "I  mean  to  say  that  God 
is  love  whichever  way  the  wind  blows." 

I  pity  any  man's  religion  that  is  affected  by  the 
climate:  it  is  only  skin  deep.  A  man  got  up  in  one  of 
our  meetings  some  time  ago  and  said  that  he  had 
once  been  a  Christian  for  about  six  months,  but  he 
spoke  in  prayer  meeting  and  an  old  deacon  got  up  and 
threw  cold  water  on  him,  and  then  he  gave  the  whole 
thing  up.  I  said,  "If  a  bucket  of  water  took  it  out  of 
you,  your  Christianity  was  not  very  deep."  True 
religion  will  strike  deeper  than  that.  It  will  take  a 
good  many  bvickets  of  water  to  take  it  out  of  you  if 
you  are  filled  with  love. 

Andrew  Murray  has  said  that  most  Christians  are 
ready  to  pray  for  the  Holy  Ghost  for  power  in  service, 
but  that  we  seldom  pray  for  Him  as  the  Spirit  of  love. 
We  have  almost  forgotten  that  love  is  the  first  fruit- 
age of  the  Spirit's  indwelling.  Love  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law.  When  sin  entered,  it  broke  the  bands 
of  love,  and  we  find  the  spirit  of  hatred  leading  Cain 
to  murder  his  brother.  Oh,  for  a  baptism  of  love, 
uniting  us  altogether  in  one  Spirit! 

The  love  of  God  taking  possession  of  our  hearts — 
that  is  what  we  want.  Are  you  walking  in  love? 
If  not,  make  up  your  mind  that  you  will  do  it  from 
now  on.    Move  into  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First 


The  Seven  "Walks"  of  Ephesians.  41 

Corinthians.  Many  people  take  an  occasional 
iourney  into  that  chapter,  but  few  live  there.  Then 
you  will  be  long-suffering  and  kind,  free  from  envy 
and  pride  and  selfishness  and  bad  temper,  thinking 
no  evil.     May  God  fill  us  all  with  love!  ^ 

IV.     Walk  circumspectly  (Ephesians  v:  15). 

The  eyes  of  the  world  are  upon  us.  They  don't 
read  the  Bible,  but  they  read  you  and  me,  and  we 
talk  more  by  our  walk  than  in  any  other  way.  We 
are  "living  epistles,  known  and  read  of  all  men." 
I  can  walk  a  lie.  I  can  walk  dishonestly.  I  can 
walk  crookedly,  and  make  other  people  stumble  over 
me.     I  said  to  some  one  the  other  day: 

"That  man  must  have  been  in  the  army  or  in  a 
military  school." 

He  said,  "Yes;  how  did  you  know?" 

I  said,  "By  the  way  he  walks." 

There  are  some  people  that  you  can  tell  have  been 
with  Jesus  Christ  by  their  walk. 

An  old  divine,  trying  to  illustrate  this  passage  in 
Ephesians,  "walking  circumspectly,"  describes  a  cat 
walking  on  a  brick  wall  covered  with  sharp  pieces  of 
glass.  The  cat  goes  along,  putting  his  feet  down 
very  cautiously,  so  as  not  to  cut  his  feet.  Let  us 
keep  in  mind  that  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  upon  our 
acts,  and  let  our  w  alk  be  very  circumspect. 

A  young  man  in  our  Bible  Institute  in  Chicago 
got  onto  the  grip  car,  and  before  the  conductor  came 
around  to  take  the  fare,  he  had  reached  the  Institute, 
and  jumped  off  without  paying  his  fare.  In  think- 
ing over  that  act,  he  said: 

"That  was  not  walking  circumspectly;  that  was  not 


42  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

just  right.  I  had  myride.and  I  ought  topay  that  fare." 

He  remembered  the  face  of  the  conductor,  and  he 
went  to  the  car  barns  and  paid  him  the  five  cents. 

"AVell/'  the  conductor  said,  "you  are  a  fool  not  to 
keep  it." 

"No,"  the  3'oung  man  said,  "I  am  not.  I  got  the 
ride,  and  I  ought  to  have  paid  for  it." 

''But  it  was  my  business  to  collect  it." 

"No,  it  w^as  my  business  to  hand  it  to  you." 

The  conductor  said,  "I  think  you  must  belong  to 
that  Bible  Institute." 

I  have  not  heard.anything  said  of  the  Institute  that 
pleased  me  so  much  as  that  one  thing. 

Not  long  after  that  the  gripman  came  to  the  Insti- 
tute, and  asked  the  student  to  come  to  see  him. 
A  cottage  meeting  was  started  in  his  house;  and  not 
only  the  conductor,  but  a  number  of  others  around 
there  were  converted  as  a  result  of  that  one  act. 

Walk  circumspectly,  because  3^ou  don't  know  who 
will  be  influenced  by  your  words  and  actions.  I 
have  heard  of  a  canary  that  was  taught  to  sing, 
"Home,  Sweet  Home,"  by  being  placed  in  a  room, 
when  young,  with  a  musical  box  that  plaj^ed  only 
that  tune.  Moses'  face  shone  after  he  had  been  in 
the  mount  with  God  forty  dsijs.  They  took 
knowledge  of  the  disciples  "that  the3^  had  been  with 
Jesus."  And  it  is  oaid  of  Lord  Peterborough  after 
spending  a  night  with  Fenelon,  the  great  French 
preacher,  he  was  so  impressed  with  his  holy  char- 
acter that  he  said  to  him  on  leaving: 

"If  I  staj^  here  any  longer,  I  shall  become  a  Chris- 
tian in  spite  of  nwself." 

Many  a  person  who  is  engaged  in  active  Christian 


The  Seven  "AValks"  of  Ephesians.  43 

work,  or  who  takes  a  leading  part  in  the  prayer 
meeting,  is  so  faulty  in  his  daily  walk  as  to  be  a 
stumbling-block  to  others.  Sometimes  the  last 
people  to  be  favorabl}^  impressed  by  professing 
Christians  are  those  who  know  them  in  their  home 
life.  This  is  all  wrong.  Test  yourselves,  there- 
fore,  and  see  if  you  indulge  in  any  questionable 
habit,  anything  in  your  example  and  influence  that 
is  likely  to  lead  astray  those  who  read  your  conduct. 

V.  Walk  not  as  other  Gentiles  ivalk  (Ephesians 
iv:  17). 

God  expects  a  difference  when  we  become  His. 
The  world  expects  a  difference,  and  the  church  of 
God  expects  a  difference  between  one  that  professes 
to  be  a  child  of  light  and  one  that  is  a  child  of  dark- 
ness; and  if  there  is  not  a  difference  in  your  life 
since  you  have  become  a  Christian,  then  I  am  afraid 
that  you  have  not  become  a  real  one. 

The  course  of  this  world  is  away  from  God;  there- 
fore I  must  go  against  the  current  of  the  world,  if 
I'm  a  child  of  God.  What  we  want  to-day  is  separa- 
tion. The  church  will  have  a  convincing  testimony 
and  will  become  a  power  in  the  world  when  it  is 
separated  from  the  world;  but  as  long  as  it  is  hand 
and  glove  with  the  world,  it  cannot  have  power. 
I  believe  that  when  we  are  told  not  to  be  unequally 
yoked  together  with  unbelievers,  it  means  just  what 
it  saj^s:  and  if  I  live  just  as  the  Gentiles,  the  ungodly, 
live,  I  shall  have  trouble. 

It  is  said  of  Lot,  "His  righteous  soul  was  vexed." 
Of  course  it  was.  Righteousness  can  never  be  at 
peace  with  unrighteousness.     And  if  I  walk  as  other 


44  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

Gentiles  walk,  as  the  world  walks,  I  will  be  con- 
stantly getting  into  trouble,  because  I  will  go  in  the 
course  of  the  world. 

You  say,  "I  will  walk  as  I  please." 

You  can  do  it.  You  can  take  a  course  away  from 
God,  but  it  will  bring  you  into  bondage  and  darkness. 

VI.     Walk  as  children  of  light  (Ephesians  v:  8). 

Put  off  the  ways  of  darkness.  Put  off  the  works 
of  darkness. 

Now  the  question  arises,  "How  am  I  going  to  get 
light. 

"God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.'' 
"The  entrance  of  Thy  word  giveth  light."  Are  you 
in  the  dark?  Let  the  Word  of  God  into  your  heart, 
and  it  will  dispel  the  darkness.  "Thy  Word  is  a 
lamp  unto  my  feet,"  and  if  you  want  light,  just  take 
the  Word.  It  is  the  privilege  of  every  one  of  us  to 
walk  in  an  unclouded  sun  all  our  days,  if  we  will. 
1  don't  believe  that  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  anj' 
child  of  His  shall  be  in  the  dark.  We  are  children 
of  the  day,  children  of  the  light;  we  have  been  born, 
of  His  Spirit,  and  He  brings  light  and  peace.  I 
believe  that  nothing  is  going  to  light  up  the  dark 
places  of  the  world  like  the  old  Book.  Men  talk 
about  the  light  of  nature,  but  we  do  not  find  that 
civilization  has  made  any  progress  where  the  light  of 
Christ  and  the  Bible  has  not  come. 

Let  me  give  you  a  passage  from  H.  L.  Hastings: 

"A  friend  of  mine  visited  the  Fiji  Islands  in  1 844, 
and  what  do  3^ou  suppose  an  infidel  was  worth  there 
then?  You  could  buy  a  man  for  a  musket,  or  if  yovi 
paid  money,  for  seven  dollars,  and  after  you  had 


The  Seven  ''Walks"  of  Ephesians.  45 

bought  him  j^ou  could  feed  him,  starve  him,  work 
him,  whip  him,  or  eat  him — they  generally  ate 
them,  unless  they  were  so  full  of  tobacco  they  could 
not  stomach  them!  But  if  you  go  there  to-day  you 
could  not  bu}?"  a  man  for  seven  dollars  nor  for  seven 
million  dollars.  There  are  no  men  there  for  sale 
now.  AVhat  has  made  this  difference  in  the  price  of 
humanity?  The  twelve  hundred  Christian  chapels 
scattered  over  that  island  tell  the  story.  The  people 
have  learned  to  read  that  Book  which  says,  'Ye  were 
not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things  as  silver  and 
gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ';  and  since 
they  learned  that  lesson,  no  man  is  for  sale  there." 

Vn.     Let  us  walk  in  good  works  (Ephesians  ii:  10). 

Now,  I  do  not  believe  that  you  will  find  a  day  pass 
in  3^our  life  but  that  3'ou  can  do  some  good  deed  if 
you  will.  Some  one  has  described  this  world  as  two 
great  mountains:  one  is  a  mountain  of  sorrow,  and 
trouble,  and  darkness,  and  gloom,  and  disappoint- 
ment; the  other  is  a  mountain  of  peace,  and  of  jo^^ 
and  of  gladness;  and  if  we  can  take  a  little  from  that 
mountain  of  darkness  and  put  it  over  on  that  mount- 
ain of  joy,  and  each  one  do  a  little,  that  mountain  of 
darkness  is  going  to  grow  smaller  and  smaller,  and 
the  other  is  going  to  grow  larger  and  larger. 

I  learned  a  motto  in  England  which  I  am  going  to 
pass  on  to  you:  "For  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ's  sake, 
do  all  the  good  you  can,  to  all  the  people  you  can, 
by  all  the  means  you  can,  in  all  the  places  you  can, 
as  long  as  ever  you  can."  Keep  that  in  mind,  and 
pass  it  on  to  others. 

You  know  that  very  often  one  little  act  of  kindness 


46  Short  Talks  bj^  D.  L.  Moody. 

will  live  a  good  deal  longer  than  a  most  magnificent 
sermon.  There  is  a  preacher  in  Edinburgh,  but  I 
never  think  of  him  as  a  preacher,  although  he  is  one 
of  the  finest  preachers  in  Scotland.  Just  one  act  is 
associated  with  that  man  that  I  will  carry  in  remem- 
brance to  the  grave.  There  is  a  hospital  for  little 
children  in  Edinburgh,  and  that  great  minister,  with 
a  large  parish  and  a  large  congregation,  goes  one 
afternoon  every  week  and  sits  down  and  talks  with 
those  little  children — a  good  many  of  them  there  for 
life;  they  are  incurable. 

One  da3^  he  found  a  little  bo}^  only  six  years  old 
who  had  been  brought  over  from  Fife.  The  little 
fellow  was  in  great  distress,  because  the  doctors 
were  coming  to  take  off  his  leg.  Think  how  you 
would  feel,  if  you  had  a  little  brother  six  years  old, 
and  he  was  taken  off  to  the  hospital,  and  the  doctor 
said  that  he  was  coming  forty-eight  hours  afterwards 
to  take  off  his  leg!  Well,  that  minister  tried  to  com- 
fort the  bo3^  and  said: 

"Your  father  will  come  to  be  with  you." 

"No,"  he  said,  "m\^  father  is  dead;  he  cannot  be 
here." 

"Well,  your  mother  will  come." 

"Mj^  mother  is  over  in  Fife.  She  is  sick,  and  can- 
not come." 

The  minister  himself  could  not  come,  so  he  said: 

"Well,  you  know  the  matron  here  is  a  mother, 
she  has  got  a  great  big  heart." 

The  little  chin  began  to  quiver  as  the  boy  said: 
"Perhaps  Jesus  will  be  with  me." 

"Yes,"  said  the  minister,  "He  will  be  with  j^ou,  and 
D  will  this  good  woman." 


The  Seven  ''Walks"  of  Ephesians.  47 

The  minister  went  around  after  the  time  of  the 
operation,  but  the  cot  was  empty;  Christ  had  taken 
the  boy  to  Himself.  Think  of  a  leading  minister 
just  going  every  week  into  a  children's  hospital, 
doing  a  thing  like  that! 

Let  us  all  walk  the  walk  of  good  works.  Find 
something  to  do,  and  do  it  every  day,  and  you  will 
never  backslide,  and  you  won't  be  asking,  "Have  I 
got  to  give  up  this  and  that?"  Christ  will  give  you 
something  better  than  anything  you  give  up.  Oh, 
may  God  baptize  us  all  with  the  spirit  of  love  and  the 
spirit  of  work  I 


THE  UNKNOWN  COMPANION 

"And  behold,  two  of  them  went  that  same  day  to  a 
village  called  Emmaus,  which  was  from  Jerusalem 
about  three-score  furlongs"  (Luke  xxiv:  13). 

In  the  account  of  the  two  disciples  going  to 
Emmaus  you  wdll  notice  that  they  w^ere  very  sorrow- 
ful. They  ought  to  have  been  the  happiest  mortals 
on  earth.  It  w^as  the  dawn  of  a  new  dispensation; 
it  was  the  first  day,  you  might  say,  of  a  new  world. 
Here  we  have  the  first  sermon  that  w^as  preached 
after  the  resurrection,  and  it  was  preached  by  the 
Lord  Himself.  He  found  these  two  disciples  very 
sorrowful;  their  hopes  had  all  died.  They  were 
going  back  to  their  home  seven  or  eight  miles  away. 
There  was  great  danger,  they  thought,  in  Jerusalem. 
The  head  of  their  company  had  been  crucified,  and 
there  was  a  storm  rising  against  His  disciples. 
Over  and  over  again  He  had  told  them,  before  He 
left  them,  that  on  the  third  day  He  would  rise;  and 
this  was  the  third  day,  and  instead  of  their  having 
faith  to  believe  that  He  had  risen,  when  the  report 
came  from  the  very  foremost  of  the  disciples,  those 
that  stood  nearest  to  Christ,  that  loved  Him  perhajDs 
the  most,  they  were  so  full  of  unbelief  that  they 
doubted  the  word  of  the  disciples  that  had  brought 
the  message,  and  they  are  going  back  into  the 
country  with  their  hearts  crushed,  bleeding,  broken, 
and  very  sad. 

There  has  always  been  a  great  discussion  as  to 
who  the  two  were.  One  we  know — Cleopas — who 
was  the  uncle  of  Christ.  Some  have  thought  that 
Luke  himself  was  the  other,  and  different  ones  have 

(48) 


The  Unknown  Companion.  49 

been  selected  as  the  second.  Now,  I  am  incHned 
to  think  that  instead  of  being  two  men  these  two  were 
a  man  and  his  wife.  I  think  it  wovdd  be  interesting 
to  reaHze  that  a  woman  was  one  of  the  disciples  that 
went  to  Emmaus. 

In  the  twent3^-fifth  verse  of  the  nineteenth  chapter 
of  John  we  read: 

"Now  there  stood  by  the  cross  of  Jesus,  his  mother, 
and  His  mother's  sister,  Mary,  the  wife  of  Cleopas, 
and  Mary  Magdalene." 

We  know,  then,  that  Mary,  Cleopas'  wife,  was 
there  at  the  cross,  and  it  wasn't  likely  that  her  hus- 
band would  go  off  into  the  country  seven  or  eight 
miles  awa}^  when  there  was  so  bitter  a  feeling  in  the 
city,  and  leave  his  wife  in  peril.  It  doesn't  say  that 
these  were  two  men,  they  were  two  disciples — and  if 
it  was  Cleopas  and  his  wife  they  were  uncle  and 
aunt  of  Jesus  Christ. 

As  they  went,  and  were  sad,  Christ  came  along 
and  walked  with  them.  Some  one  has  said  that  we 
do  not  suf[icientl3^  realize  that  if  anj^  two  of  us  make 
Jesus  the  subject  of  our  conversation  He  Himself 
will  be  of  our  company.  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  His  name  He  is  in  the  midst. 

People  have  often  wondered  how  it  could  be  that 
Cleopas,  one  of  His  disciples,  should  not  have  known 
Him.  That  is  not  so  strange.  You  remember  that 
Jehovah  appeared  to  Abraham  as  a  way-faring 
man;  to  Jacob  as  a  wrestler;  to  Joshua  as  a  soldier 
with  a  drawn  sword;  so  that  He  may  have  appeared 
to  these  disciples  in  a  way  that  they  should  not  know 
Him  until  He  had  gone  from  them. 

They  were  so  taken  up  with  their  sorrow  that  they 


50  Short  Talks  bj-  D.  L.  Mooch\ 

had  forgotten  all  the  sweet  promises  He  had  left  of 
what  He  would  do  after  His  resurrection.  That 
seemed  to  be  hid  from  them. 

When  Christ  drew  near,  "He  said  unto  them.  What 
manner  of  communications  are  these  that  ye  have 
one  to  another,  as  ye  w^alk,  and  are  sad?  "  Then 
He  began  to  unfold  to  them  the  Scriptures.  Now, 
do  you  know,  if  they  had  gone  to  the  Scriptures  in 
the  time  of  their  trouble,  as  they  ought  to  have 
done,  thej^  would  have  lost  sight  of  their  trouble? 
He  took  them  right  to  the  Word  of  God,  where  thej^ 
could  get  comfort. 

There  are  four  things  I  want  to  call  3'our  atten- 
tion to: 

1.  Their  minds  were  opened  that  thej^  should 
understand  the  Scriptures. 

2.  He  caused  their  hearts  to  burn  within  them. 
When  God  opens  up  the  mind,  and  we  receive  the 
Word,  then  the  heart  begins  to  burn;  and  there  isn't 
anything  that  will  cause  the  heart  to  burn  with  joy 
and  gladness  like  the  Word  of  the  living  God. 

3.  He  opened  their  ej^es,  that  they  should  know 
Him. 

4.  He  revealed  Himself  unto  them. 

LET  US   PICTURE  THAT  SCENE. 

This  man  and  his  wife  are  going  back  from  Jeru- 
salem to  their  home  in  Emmaus.  On  the  way  a 
stranger  joins  them,  and  begins  to  talk  with  them. 
As  they  draw  near  the  town  the  daj^  is  far  spent,  and 
the  evening  is  coming  on.  And  when  they  get  to 
their  home  the  stranger  has  made  His  company  so 
precious,  and  His  word  so  sweet,  that  they  ask  Him 


The  Unknown  Companion.  51 

to  spend  the  night.  And  that  is  another  proof  to  me 
that  it  was  a  man  and  wife,  because  "the^^  con- 
strained Him."  A  man  and  wife  could  constrain 
a  person  to  stay  over  night,  but  two  mere  friends 
would  hardly  do  so.  It  would  be  just  like  a  man  and 
wife  to  saj^:  "Come  in^,  we  wish  you  would.  We 
have  plent}^  of  room."  So  they  ail  went  in  together. 
I  can  imagine  this  woman  preparing  the  evening 
meal,  and  as  the  two  men  sit  there  talking  together, 
every  once  in  a  while  the  woman  stops  and  listens. 
She  can't  help  it.  Oh,  those  words  were  so  sweet! 
I  wish  every  word  the  Son  of  God  uttered  on  that 
occasion  had  been  put  on  record.  What  an  exper- 
ience it  must  have  been  to  hear  Christ  tell  the  mean- 
ing of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  and  the  brazen  serpent 
and  the  ceremonies  of  the  great  day  of  atonement; 
to  hear  Him  expound  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah,  and 
the  twentj^-second  Psalm,  and  the  other  passages 
in  Moses  and  the  prophets  concerning  Himselfl 
What  an  unfolding  of  Scripture,  and  how  their 
hearts  were  thrilled  as  they  learned  those  blessed 
truths!  Some  people  say  that  we  have  outgrown 
the  Old  Testament,  that  the  New  Testament  is  all 
we  need.  But  Christ  used  it;  it  was  all  He  had. 
He  set  His  seal  upon  y.i.  It  is  recorded  that  He 
made  quotations  from  at  least  twenty-two  of  the 
thirty-nine  books.  He  referred  to  them  constantl}^, 
and  said  that  they  must  be  fulfilled.  Saphir  has 
vsaid  that  the  gospel  narrative  is  like  a  high  table- 
land, but  we  cannot  be  spared  the  ascent  from  Gene- 
sis to  Malachi.  The  one  theme  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  the  Messiah,  and  until  you  realize  that,  3'ou  have 
not  found  the  key  to  its  treasures. 


52  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  ]\Ioody. 

At  last  the  evening  meal  is  prepared,  and  they  sit 
down  and  begin.  I  can  just  imagine  Cleopas  turn- 
ing to  the  stranger  and  saying: 

"Will  you  ask  a  blessing?" 

Then  He  raised  those  pierced  and  wounded  hands, 
and  perhaps  that  is  the  way  .He  revealed  Himself  to 
them.  They  saw  the  prints  in  the  palms  of  His 
hands,  the  wounds  that  had  been  made  at  Calvary. 
And  He  is  gone.  Some  one  has  said  that  now,  as  at 
Emmaus,  Jesus  loves  to  make  Himself  know^n  in  the 
breaking  of  the  bread. 

I  do  not  believe  they  touched  a  morsel  of  supper, 
their  hearts  wxre  so  full,  but  they  said: 

"We  must  go  back  to  Jerusalem  and  take  the 
news." 

They  went  back  much  quicker  than  they  came 
out,  their  hearts  leaping  within  them  for  joy.  They 
found  the  disciples  and  brought  the  glad  tidings: 

"He  is  risen!  We  have  seen  Him,  and  He  has 
talked  to  us." 

To  their  d^^ing  day  how  they  must  have  told  over 
and  over  how  they  saw  Him  on  that  journe3^! 

Oh,  that  Christ  might  come,  and  cause  our  hearts 
to  burn  within  us.  Let  us  pray  that  He  may  open 
our  eyes  and  our  understanding,  and  that  He  may 
just  give  us  a  fresh  vision  of  Himself  1 


FELLOWSHIP  WITH  GOD. 

No  man  has  a  real  desire  to  walk  with  God  until 
he  has  been  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and 
so  has  been  brought  into  fellowship  with  God.  If 
we  have  turned  away  from  the  sanctuary  and  have 
neglected  the  statutes  of  God,  and  find  our  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  food  outside  of  the  Bible  and 
good  literature,  and  are  seeking  satisfaction  in  the 
amusements  of  the  world,  we  are  certainly  not  in 
fellowship  with  God. 

We  read  in  the  eighth  Psalm  that  ''no  good  thing 
will  He  withhold  from  them  that  walk  uprightly," 
If  God  is  withholding  His  good  things  from  us,  let 
us  pause  and  find  out  what  is  keeping  us  from 
enjo3^ing  the  blessing  of  God,  why  it  is  that  we 
have  lost  power  and  have  not  had  success  in  our 
Christian  life.  A  good  many  people  say  that  the 
Christian  life  has  not  been  what  they  expected  it 
would  be  when  they  started  out.  Others  say  that 
it  has  been  a  great  many  times  better.  Now,  what 
is  the  trouble? 

I  believe  that  we  are  living  in  a  glorious  daj^;  but 
there  is  a  tendency  among  some  peojDle  to  get  away 
from  the  old  gospel.  They  say  that  we  must  give 
up  preaching  repentance  and  the  atonement,  and 
there  is  where  a  great  many  get  off  the  track.  If 
we  give  up  the  old  doctrine  of  repentance,  what  are 
we  to  put  in  its  place?  If  a  man  steals  and  wants 
to  get  right  again,  he  must  rej^ent  and  be  converted 
just  as  much  now  as  he  had  to  j^ears  ago.  If  a  man 
is  to  become  a  child  of  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  to 
set  up  His  kingdom  in  that  man's  heart,  it  must 

(53) 


54  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

be  done  just  as  it  was  done  five  hundred  years  ago. 
If  it  is  a  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  sinners,  then 
we  don't  want  to  change  the  doctrine  of  the  atone- 
ment or  any  other  teaching  of  God's  AVord.  A 
man  who  has  broken  away  from  the  great  funda- 
mental doctrines  is  like  a  blasted  tree  in  the  desert: 
there  is  no  life  and  no  power  in  him. 

SEPARATION  FROM  THE  WORLD. 

In  the  sixth  chapter  of  Jeremiah  and  the  sixteenth 
verse  we  read,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Stand  ye  in 
the  ways  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where 
is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  for  your  souls."  If  a  man  is  going  to  walk 
with  God  he  must  walk  in  the  old  paths,  for  God  has 
not  changed  one  whit.  He  is  unchangeable. 
What  we  nesd  is  to  go  back  to  the  old  gospel,  for 
"it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  unto  every 
one  that  believeth." 

Now,  if  we  want  to  walk  with  God  we  nuist  not 
try  to  bring  Him  around  to  our  terms;  we  must  go 
over  to  His  terms.     Here  are  some  of  them: 

In  II  Corinthians  vi:  14,  we  read:  "Be  not  une- 
qually yoked  together  with  unbelievers:  for  whatf el- 
lowship  hath  righteousness  with  unrighteousness? 
and  what  communion  hath  light  with  darkness? 
And  what  concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial?  or  what 
part  hath  he  that  believeth  with  an  infidel?  And 
what  agreement  hath  the  temple  of  God  with  idols? 
.  .  Wherefore  come  out  from  among 
them,  and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and  touch 
not  the  unclean  thing;  and  I  will  receive  you.  And 
I  will  be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my 
sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty." 


Fellowship  With  God.  55 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  anj^  doctrine  more 
needed  to-day  in  the  Christian  church  in  America 
than  the  doctrine  of  separation.  AVe  have  lost 
power  because  the  line  between  the  church  and  the 
world  has  been  almost  obliterated.  A  good  many 
people  profess  Christianity,  but  their  profession 
does  not  mean  much;  the  result  is  that  the  world 
does  not  know  what  Christians  realty  believe.  For 
every  unconverted  man  that  reads  the  Bible,  a 
hundred  read  you  and  me;  and  if  they  see  us  hand- 
in-glove  with  the  imgodly  they  are  not  going  to 
have  any  confidence  in  our  professions. 

"Be  not  unequally  yoked  together  with  unbe- 
lievers." How  does  that  strike  Christians  who  are 
joined  to  the  Odd  Fellows  and  Free  Masons?  How 
is  it  with  matrimon}^?  How  many  ministers  would 
marry  a  godly  woman  to  an  ungodly  man?  Why 
not  take  a  stand  and  say  you  will  not  be  a  party  to 
it?  The  courts  are  filled  with  divorce  cases  because 
Christian  men  and  women  have  been  yoked  with 
unbelievers.  Look  at  the  mothers  whose  children 
have  been  unequally  yoked  with  infidels  and  men 
of  the  world!  My  friends,  if  we  want  the  power  of 
God  we  must  obey  God's  word,  cost  us  what  it  may. 

How  is  it  about  your  life?  Are  you  hand-in-glove 
with  the  world?  If  you  are,  how  can  you  expect 
God  to  fill  you  with  the  Holy  Spirit?  I  believe  that 
the  cause  of  Christ  is  suffering  more  from  this  one 
thing  than  am^  other  ten  things  put  together. 
God  cannot  give  us  power,  because  we  are  allied 
with  the  ungodl3^  The  mirth  that  satisfies  the 
world  will  not  satisfy  the  true  child  of  God,  and 
yet  how  many  of  us  are  just  looking  to  the  vv'orld 


56  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

for  our  pleasure.  If  we  walk  with  God,  we  will  not 
be  asking.  What  is  the  harm  of  this  and  that?  the 
question  will  be.  What  is  the  good'^  If  a  thing  does 
not  help  us  we  will  give  it  up  for  something  better. 

SUNDAY  NEWSPAPERS. 

Right  here  I  want  to  say  that  I  don't  see  how  any 
Christian  man  or  woman  can  touch  the  Sunday 
newspapers.  You  may  go  to  church  regularly, 
but  I  do  not  believe  that  Gabriel  himself  could  hold 
an  audience  that  has  been  reading  the  Sunday 
newspaper  before  they  came  to  church.  The  time 
has  come  when  the  natioii  should  rise  up  and  cry 
aloud  to  God  to  stop  this  iniquitous  thing.  It  is 
doing  more  harm  to-day  than  anj^  other  one  thing 
in  literature.  You  can  get  along  without  it  one 
day  in  the  week,  and  I  believe  j^ou  are  dishonoring 
God  by  having  anything  to  do  with  it.  If  persons 
would  rather  read  the  Sunday  newspaper  than  the 
Bible,  if  the3^  cannot  get  along  without  the  opera 
and  the  theatre,  God  have  mercy  upon  them.  A 
lady  told  me  that  she  made  a  bargain  with  her  hus- 
band that  if  he  would  go  to  church  every  Sunday 
with  her,  she  would  go  to  the  theatre  with  him,  but 
she  lost  all  her  influence  over  her  husband  by  her 
compromise.  A  man  or  a  woman  never  lets  down 
the  standard  without  losing  more  than  they  gain. 

Keep  the  standard  high  and  let  God  have  the 
first  place,  and  then  He  will  withhold  no  good  thing 
from  you.  Let  the  world  call  j^ou  a  bigot — I  would 
not  give  much  for  Christianity  if  the  world  had 
nothing  to  say  against  it.  "Woe  unto  you  when 
all  men  speak  well  of  3^ou."     If  the  world  has  noth- 


Fellowship  With  God.  57 

ing  to  say  against  you,  Jesus  Christ  will  probably' 
have  nothing  to  say  for  you. 

If  3^ou  want  powxr,  my  friends,  keep  as  far  from 
conformity  with  the  world  as  you  can.  "Be  ye 
separate."  If  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  extended, 
we  must  have  separated  men  and  women,  not 
card-playing,  theatre-going,  dancing  Christians. 
That  kind  of  Christians  will  never  accomplish 
much  for  God  in  this  world.     ''Be  ye  separate." 

Jesus  taught  His  disciples  that  they  must  be  in 
the  world  but  not  of  it.  A  Christian  in  the  woild  is 
one  thing,  and  the  world  in  a  Christian  is, quite  a 
another  thing.  A  ship  in  the  water  is  all  right,  but 
when  the  water  gets  into  the  ship,  it  is  quite  a  differ- 
ent thing.  The  churches  are  full  of  men  and  women 
who  have  no  power  at  all.  Where  did  they  lose  it? 
It  was  when  they  formed  an  alliance  with  the  world. 

Some  people  say  that  if  you  take  that  ground, 
you  will  stand  alone,  but  I  would  rather  be  alone 
with  God  than  to  be  with  the  whole  world  without 
God.  A  man  who  is  with  God  is  always  in  the 
majority.  I  do  not  believe  a  man  ever  got  a  thing 
by  the  sacrifice  of  principle  that  did  not  bring  ruin. 

My  friends,  if  you  want  power  with  God,  and 
with  men,  keep  as  separate  from  the  world  as  you 
can.  We  have  but  a  little  while  to  live  in  this 
world,  and  our  position  ought  to  be  that  of  men  and 
women  sent  into  the  world  to  represent  Christ  to 
mankind.  If  we  are  Christians,  we  have  been  re- 
deemed from  this  world.  Our  home  is  in  heaven, 
and  we  are  only  here  as  our  Lord's  representatives. 
"He  that  saith  he  abideth  in  Him,  ought  himself 
also  so  to  walk  even  as  He  walked." 


NO  ROOM  IN  THE  INN. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  a  verse  that  you 
will  find  in  the  2nd  chapter  of  Luke,  a  part  of  the 
7th  verse: 

"And  they  laid  Him  in  a  manger,  because  there 
was  no  room  for  Him  in  the  inn." 

I  want,  if  I  can,  to  show  that  the  human  heart  is 
very  much  like  that  inn  at  Bethlehem — no  room 
for  Christ.  Every  true  child  of  God  for  four  thou- 
sand years  had  been  looking  out  into  the  mist  of  the 
future,  and  had  been  listening  that  they  might  hear 
the  sound  of  His  footfall.  Away  back  in  Eden, 
when  man  fell,  the  promise  came  that  the  seed  of 
the  woman  should  bruise  the  serjDent's  head;  and 
from  the  time  that  Cain  was  born  they  were  looking 
for  that  child.  Most  Bible  students  agree  that 
when  Eve  said,  "I  have  gotten  a  man  from  the 
Lord,"  when  Cain  was  born,  she  thought  that  he 
was  the  promised  One.  For  four  thousand  years 
they  had  been  watching  and  praj^ing  and  waiting 
for  the  coming  of  the  j^romised  One,  and  3^et  the 
very  first  sound  that  falls  upon  our  ear  when  He 
arrives  upon  earth  is  that  there  is  no  room  for  Him. 

Mark  how  He  might  have  come,  with  all  the 
pomp  and  all  the  glory  of  that  upper  world.  It 
would  have  been  a  great  condescension  for  Him  to 
have  been  born  in  a  palace,  rocked  in  a  golden 
cradle,  and  fed  with  a  golden  spoon,  and  to  have 
had  the  angels  come  down  to  be  His  nurses.  But 
He  gave  up  all  the  glory  of  that  world,  and  was 
born  of  a  poor  w^oman,  and  His  cradle  was  a  manger, 
the  lowest  position  that  He  could  take  on  earth. 

(58) 


No  Room  in  the  Inn.  59 

Then,  for  a  moment,  just  think  what  He  had 
come  for.  He  had  come  to  bless,  not  to  curse;  to 
Hft  up,  not  to  cast  down;  to  seek  and  save  that 
which  was  lost;  to  give  sight  to  the  blind;  to  open 
prison  doors  and  set  captives  free;  to  reveal  the 
Father's  love;  to  give  rest  to  the  weary;  to  be  a 
blessing  to  the  whole  world;  and  yet  we  find  that 
there  is  no  room  for  Him. 

I  was  in  Chicago  in  the  '50s  when  the  Prince  of 
Wales  came  to  this  country,  and  I  remember  how 
anxious  that  Western  city  was  to  get  him  out 
there.  When  the  news  came  that  he  had  accepted 
the  invitation  and  was  coming,  they  thought  there 
wasn't  anj^thing  in  that  city  good  enough  for  him. 
The  best  hotel  was  at  his  disposal,  the  freedom  of 
the  city  was  offered  him,  business  was  suspended, 
and  every  band  of  music  within  a  hundred  miles 
was  brought  into  Chicago.  When  his  train  came 
near  the  citj^  every  bell  was  rung,  cannons  were 
booming,  bands  were  playing,  and  there  was 
intense  excitement.  The  pajDers  Avere  discussing 
for  dsijs,  what  he  was  coming  for,  and  after  he  had 
gone,  what  the  object  of  his  visit  was.  I  don't 
know  that  he  ever  told  anyone  what  he  came  for. 
Some  thought  that  he  had  come  to  look  into  the^ 
republican  form  of  government.  Some  thought 
he  had  come  for  his  health.  Some  thought  he  had 
come  to  look  into  our  institutions.  Some  thought 
he  had  come  to  go  out  to  the  jDrairies,  as  he  did,  and 
have  a  buffalo  hunt.  He  came  cind  went.  I  don't 
know  that  Chicago  was  made  any  better  by  his 
coming;  I  don't  know  tha*^  an}^  one  was  made  any 
better  by  his  coming;  I  don't  know  that  he  accom- 


6o  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood^^ 

plished  much  on  his  mission.  But  I  do  know  that 
when  the  Prince  of  Heaven  came  into  this  world 
He  came  on  no  secret  venture.  He  proclaimed 
what  He  came  for,  namelj^,  to  bless  the  world;  and 
yet  there  was  no  city  that  gave  Him  the  freedom  of 
it;  there  were  no  bells  rung,  there  was  no  shout  of 
welcome  from  the  sons  of  men  when  He  arrived. 
In  fact.  He  was  the  most  unpopular  man  that  had 
ever  come  into  the  world.  During  all  the  six  thou- 
sand 3"ears  from  Adam  to  the  present  time  there 
never  has  been  one  that  has  come  into  the  world 
that  w^as  thought  so  little  of  as  the  Son  of  Man. 
Only  think  what  He  w^anted  to  do  for  men  and 
women  on  the  face  of  the  earth — what  God  had  sent 
Him  to  do! 

I  can  imagine  some  of  you  saying,  "li  it  had  been 
known  w^ho  He  was,  it  would  have  been  altogether 
different."  But  when  those  three  wise  men  from 
the  East  w^ho  came  to  Jerusalem  and  w^anted  to 
know  where  He  who  was  King  of  the  Jews  was  born, 
and  when  it  was  found  that.  He  was  born  in  Beth- 
lehem, Herod  sent  down  to  Bethlehem  and  ordered 
that  all  the  little  children  under  two  years  of  age 
should  be  put  to  death  that  he  might  destro}^  that 
child.  He  drew  the  sw^ord,  and  it  was  never 
sheathed  until  it  pierced  the  heart  of  the  Son  of 
God  on  Calvary. 

AN  UNWELCOME  VISITOR. 

Do  you  tell  me  He  was  a  welcome  guest  anywhere 
during  the  time  He  was  on  earth,  in  any  city  or 
town  He  visited?    If  you  will  read  His  life  carefully. 


No  Room  in  the  Inn.  6 1 

you  will  find  no  town  or  village  wanted  Him.  After 
He  had  been  baptized  bj?-  John  and  was  on  the  way 
back  to  Nazareth  He  performed  a  miracle.  You 
would  have  thought  that  little  town  would  have 
been  highlj^  honored  to  have  such  a  townsman. 
He  was  greater  than  Jeremiah,  or  Isaiah,  or  Elisha, 
or  Elijah,  or  Moses,  or  Abraham,  the  great  patriarch. 
He  was  far  greater  than  anyone  that  ever  came  into 
the  world,  and  no  little  town  in  the  history  of  this 
world  could  have  been  exalted  like  Nazareth  if  it 
had  given  Him  a  welcome.  But  we  read  that  He 
went  into  the  sj^nagogue,  as  was  His  custom,  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  found  the  place  where  it  was 
written  in  Isaiah,  and  began  to  read,  "The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  He  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent  me 
to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to 
th  captives,  and  the  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach 
the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  Then  He  closed 
the  book.  The  next  sentence  was,  "And  the  day  of 
vengeance  of  our  God."  They  might  have  been 
angry  if  He  had  read  that,  but  He  didn't.  He 
will  come  back  b}^  and  by,  and  take  up  the  Book, 
and  commence  to  read  where  He  left  off.  The  day 
of  vengeance  is  coming.  Then  Lie  began  to  teach 
them  at  Nazareth.  Never  in  the  history  of  the 
world  would  a  town  have  heard  a  better  sermon 
than  they  would  have  heard  in  Nazareth  if  they  had 
let  Him  go  on  and  preach.  At  first  the}^  were  awed 
by  His  manner,  and  by  the  wisdom  that  fell  from 
His  lips.  I  see  one  man  touch  another,  and  he  says: 
"Isn't  this  the  son  of  Joseph?      Isn't  this  the 


62  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

carpenter  vS  son?  "Where  has  He  got  all  this  wisdom?" 
He  had  been  anointed  from  on  high.  He  had 
received  the  unction  of  the  Hoh^  Ghost  to  preach. 
Some  men  were  anointed  to  destroj^.  Samson  was 
anointed  to  kill,  and  3^011  will  find  all  through  his- 
tory men  who  were  anointed  for  certain  kinds  of 
work.  Christ  was  anointed  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  poor,  and  they  were  very  poor  at  that  time; 
and  oh,  what  a  sermon  they  would  have  heard! 
But  when  He  recalled  the  acts  of  God  with  the 
Gentiles  they  thought  it  reflected  on  their  nation, 
and  they  began  to  gnash  their  teeth.  The^^  got  so 
angry  that  the3^  hurried  Him  out  of  the  synagogue, 
and  if  He  hadn't  taken  Himself  out  of  their  hands 
miraculoush^  they  would  have  taken  the  law  into 
their  own  hands  and  hurled  Him  into  perdition. 
Nazareth  didn't  have  any  room  for  Him.  You  never 
hear  of  Nazareth  being  proud  of  owning  such  a 
citizen.  You  do  not  hear  of  their  sending  a  deputa- 
tion afterwards  to  have  Him  come  back  and  visit 
their  town. 

I  have  often  tried  to  realize  the  feelings  the  Son  ot 
God  must  have  had  as  He  left  Nazareth  to  go  down 
into  Capernaum  among  strangers,  to  think  that  He 
had  been  cast  out  of  His  own  town!  In  all  the  after 
years  when  people  crowded  about  Him  the3'  would 
say  that  He  was  not  welcome  in  His  own  town 
where  He  had  been  brought  up,  that  the\^  wouldn't 
allow  Him  to  stay  in  the  town,  but  had  cast  liim 
out.     That  is  the  waj^  He  commenced  His  ministry. 

He  went  down  to  Capernaum,  and  for  a  time  He 
was  very  popular.  He  was  heard  bj^  immense 
crowds.  He  cast  out  devils,  and  there  wasn't  any 


No  Room  in  the  Inn,  63 

r;nc  in  the  town  that  wanted  to  be  blessed  that  He 
wasn't  ready  to  bless.  It  wasn't  long  before  His 
fame  spread  all  over  the  countr}",  and  the}^  came 
up  from  Jerusalem  and  the  towns  of  Judea  into 
that  little  town  of  Capernaum,  and  for  a  little  while 
He  was  quite  popular,  and  crowds  surged  up  around 
him.  But  b}^  and  by  it  got  too  hot  for  Him  in 
Capernaum.  They  w^ould  come  up  from  Jerusalem 
and  from  other  places,  and  stir  up  the  citizens  of 
Capernaum  against  Him.  You  will  find  Him  going 
from  town  to  town  healing  the  sick,  raising  the 
dead,  and  casting  out  devils,  and  no  man  for  three 
years  ever  did  such  a  work  on  earth,  and  at  the  end 
there  was  no  man  so  unpopular.  You  read  of  His 
going  up  to  the  annual  feast  at  Jerusalem;  3^ou  never 
read  of  Jerusalem  giving  Him  a  welcome.  Although 
He  had  wrought  many  miracles,  and  man^^  para- 
bles had  fallen  from  His  lips,  although  the  most 
wonderful  sermons  that  were  ever  preached  on  this 
earth  were  preached  by  Him,  there  was  hardly 
anj^one  speaking  a  kind  word  for  Him.  Almost 
a  universal  hiss  was  going  up  against  Him. 

In  one  place  you  read  that  He  looked  towards 
heaven  and  sighed.  I  can  imagine  as  He  looked 
around  Plim  and  saw  death  and  woe  and  misery, 
while  so  few^  people  w^ere  willing  to  let  Him  bless 
them,  and  then  looked  to  that  world  where  all  knew 
-Him  and  honored  Him  and  loved  Him,  where  He 
had  never  been  mistrusted,  or  called  a  blasphemer, 
or  imposter — that  was  common  all  around  Him 
when  He  w^as  on  earth — I  can  just  imagine  how,  as 
He  looked  toward  that  world,  He  sighed,  and  longed 
to  get  back. 


64  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

In  another  place  it  says  He  had  been  lifting  up 
the  standard  verj^  high,  and  many  of  His  disciples 
"went  back,  and  walked  no  more  with  Him."  It  is 
one  of  the  sad  scenes  in  His  life.  In  another  place  it 
says:  "Every  man  went  to  his  own  house,  and  Jesus 
went  to  the  Mount  of  Olives."  He  didn't  have  any 
house  to  go  to.  He  that  was  once  rich  became  poor 
for  your  sake  and  mine.  He  that  ^.leated  all  things 
had  emptied  Himself  and  become  one  of  the  poorest 
of  the  land.  On  an  occasion  like  that  He  uttered 
the  words:  "The  foxes  have,  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  nests;  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not 
where  to  lay  His  head."  His  cradle  was  a  borrowed 
one.  The  onty  time  that  He  ever  rode  on  a  beast  it 
was  a  borrowed  beast.  His  grave  was  a  borrowed 
one.  He  hadn't  an  inch  of  ground  that  He  could 
call  His  own.  When  He  went  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  the  ground  was  His  bed,  the  sod  was  His 
pillow.  I  can  see  Him  with  His  locks  wet  with  the 
dew  of  the  night. 

I  often  think  if  I  had  been  living  in  those  days 
I  would  like  to  have  had  a  home  in  Jerusalem,  I 
would  have  liked  that  very  night  to  have  asked 
Him  to  nw  home.  But  I  presume  my  house  would 
have  been  closed  against  Him  like  the  others  in  the 
city  of  Jerusalem. 

NO  ROOM  IN  AMERICA. 

Nearly  nineteen  hundred  3'ears  have  roiled 
away;  the  Son  of  God  has  been  in  glory  these  nine- 
teen hundred  years,  and  probably  there  is  no  part 
of  this  w^orld  where  His  gospel  has  been  preached 
more  faithfully  than  right  here  in  America.  Prob- 


No  Room  in  the  Inn,  65 

ably  there  has  been  no  part  of  the  world  where 
Christ's  character  has  been  held  up,  and  Christ  has 
been  pictured  to  the  people  and  preached  to  the 
people,  as  He  has  in  this  country.  And  what  do 
we  see  to-day?  I  would  like  to  ask  if  you  think 
human  nature  has  changed  one  bit?  Isn't  it  the 
same  to-day?  No  room  for  the  Son  of  God!  Plenty 
of  room  for  everything  else,  but  no  room  for  Jesus 
Christ  personall3\ 

I  am  not  talking  about  religion.  Almost  every- 
body has  some  sort  of  religion,  almost  everybody 
goes  to  some  sort  of  a  church,  and  they  will  talk 
churches,  and  ministers,  and  elders,  and  deacons, 
and  bishops  and  Pope;  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
personal  Christ,  there  are  verj^  few  that  want  the 
Son  of  God,  there  are  very  few  that  will  make  room 
for  Him  to-da}^  Don't  think  that  I  am  exaggerat- 
ing; I  believe  I  am  telling  the  truth.  I  believe  the 
cry  goes  up  from  the  earth  to-day,  ''There  is  no  room 
for  the  Son  of  God."  I  believe  the  heart  of  many  a 
man  and  woman  in  this  hall  to-day  is  like  that  inn 
at  Bethlehem,  no  room  for  Jesus  Christ. 

I  would  venture  to  say  if  it  could  be  put  to  a 
popular  vote  to  ask  Christ  to  come  back  to  this 
earth  from  which  we  have  cast  Him  out,  there 
isn't  a  state  in  this  republic  w^ould  vote  to  have  Him 
back.  Not  only  that,  but  I  don't  believe  there  is 
one  county  in  all  the  twenty-seven  hundred  counties 
in  this  republic  that  would  vote  to  have  the  Son  of 
God  come  back.  I  don't  believe  there  is  a  town  or 
a  precinct  or  a  hamlet  that  would  really  vote  to 
have  Him  come  back.  Perhaps  you  doubt  that 
statement — you  don't  believe  it.     T  want  to  say  1 


66  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

believe  it  emphaticalty.  Not  but  what  they  would 
vote  to  have  churches  and  church-fairs  and  all 
that,  but  I  am  talking  now  about  a  personal  Christ.^ 
That  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world. 

The  human  familj^  is  all  divided  up  into  sects  and 
parties  and  societies,  but  I  don't  believe  3-ou  will 
find  a  society  that  would  vote  to  have  Christ  come 
back  and  reign  in  person,  and  have  the  will  of  God 
done  in  the  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven.  It  is  one 
thing  to  make  that  praj^er,  "Thy  Kingdom  come. 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  Heaven,"  and 
quite  another  thing  to  desire  it  above  everything 
else  and  do  all  we  can  to  advance  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  bring  about  that  state  of  things.  Do  you 
tell  le  that  there  is  a  society  of  all  the  societies  j^ou 
knc  /  that  would  vote  to  have  Him  come  back?  Do 
you  hink  the  Free  Masons  would  want  Him  as  one 
of  i:  eir  members?  I  believed  He  would  be  black- 
balled by  every  lodge  in  the  country.  Do  j^ou 
thini  the  Odd  Fellows  would  want  Him?  What 
polii  cal  party  would  vote  to  have  Him?  Do  you 
thin  :  your  bon  ton  society  would  want  Him?  1 
thin  i  He  would  break  up  some  of  these  progressive 
euclij*e  parties,  don't  3^ou?  I  think  He  would 
break  up  some  of  the  rotten  things  that  are  going 
on  in  political  parties,  don't  you?  You  think  that 
the  world  wants  Christ  yet?  It  is  one  thing  to  be 
religious  and  talk  pious  on  Sunday,  but  it  is  quite 
another  thing  to  live  out  the  principles  on  Monday 
and  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  and  Thursday.  We 
have  a  lot  of  Sundaj^  religion,  but  it  doesn't  amount 
to  much.  If  your  religion  doesn't  carry  you  right 
through  seven  daj^s  of  the  week  I  wouldn't  give  a 


No  Kooiii  in  the  Inn.  67 

snap  of  im'  fniger  for  3^our  piet}^;  and  if  you  are 
very  religious  during  Lent  and  then  serve  Baal 
during  the  rest  of  Jhe  year,  I  wouldn't  give  much  for 
your  Lent  services.  There  is  a  class  of  people  who 
try  to  serve  Jehovah  on  Sunday  morning,  but  Baal 
the  rest  of  the  time.     You  can't  do  it. 

All  the  whiskey  men,  all  the  saloons,  would  vote 
solid  against  Him,  and  no  man  who  is  dishonest  in 
his  business  w^ould  want  Him  to  come  back — he 
wouldn't  want  Him  to  look  over  his  ledger  and  see 
how  his  business  is  going  on.  No  man  or  woman 
that  is  leading  an  impure  life  would  want  Him. 

The  fact  is,  there  isn't  room  down  here  for  the 
Son  of  God.  He  made  the  world,  but  the  world 
hasn't  room  for  Him.  When  He  made  your  heart 
and  mine  He  made  room  for  Himself,  but  other 
things  have  come  in  and  taken  His  place. 

Have  you  ever  had  the  feeling  in  your  life  that  no 
one  wanted  you?  I  had  it  for  about  forty-eight 
hours  once,  and  1.  shall  never  forget  those  two 
dark  days  and  nights  as  long  as  I  live.  Oh,  the 
sadness,  the  loneliness!  And  I  cannot  help  feel 
that  my  Master  must  have  been  very  lonely  down 
here,  to  be  called  an  imposter,  a  deceiver,  possessed 
with  devils,  influenced  and  controlled  by  the  lord  of 
filth.  How  keenly  He  must  have  felt  it.  He  who 
knew  no  sin!  You  know  what  His  reward  was: 
Gethsemane,  Golgotha  and  the  grave.  When  He 
had  finished  His  three  years'  ministry,  although 
He  had  blessed  everj^body  that  would  take  a  bless- 
ing from  Him,  His  disciples  were  only  a  little  hand- 
ful, Jerusalem  didn't  have  room  for  Plim.  People 
say  that  if  we  could  have  truth  and  righteousness 


68  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

embodied  the  world  would  fall  down  and  worship 
truth.  Don't  you  believe  it!  Truth  was  embodied 
in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  world  slew  Him.  That 
reveals  the  human  heart. 

THE  HOME  AT  BETHANY. 

When  the  darkness  was  gathering  around  His 
path,  and  you  could  hear  the  mutterings  of  the 
storm  that  was  going  to  sweep  Him  up  to  Calvary, 
there  is  one  star  that  shines  out  over  the  eastern 
slope  of  Olivet  that  is  very  bright  in  my  estimation. 
I  can  imagine  one  afternoon  He  stood  in  the  outer 
court  of  the  temple — for  He  was  never  admitted  into 
the  inner  court — they  never  allowed  Him  in  the 
place  where  the  priests  were,  although  it  was  His 
own  temple — and  a  woman  came  in  to  worship. 
She  saw  the  crowd,  made  inquiries  as  to  who  the 
speaker  was,  and  was  told  that  He  was  the  prophet 
of  Galilee.     She  says: 

'T  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  that  prophet,  but  I 
never  heard  any  good  about  Him.  I  am  told  He  is 
a  deceiver  and  an  imposter.  I  think  I  will  go  and 
hear  Him  myself." 

I  can  see  that  woman.  She  gets  just  as  near  to  the 
speaker  as  she  can,  and  stands  there  listening. 
That  afternoon  Christ,  perhaps,  uttered  something 
like  this:  "Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  j^ou  rest.  Take  my 
yoke  upon  3^ou  and  learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls;  for  M^^  yoke  is  easy  and  My  burden  is  light." 

"Ah,"  said  that  woman,  ^'that  is  what  I  want.  I 
have  sought  rest,  and  have  never  been  able  to  find  it. 
I  have  sought  it  in  the  law,  I  have  sought  it  in  the 


No  Room  in  the  Inn.  69 

prophets,  I  have  sought  it  here  in  the  temple  service; 
but  m.y  heart  is  so  sad  and  lonely.  Mother  is  gone, 
father  is  dead,  and  I  want  comfort.  That  man 
speaks  of  giving  comfort;  I  never  heard  anything 
like  that  before.  He  doesn't  speak  like  one  of  the 
rabbis.  He  doesn't  teach  like  one  of  the  Sad- 
ducees  or  Pharisees.  I  have  never  heard  anything 
so  sweet." 

It  may  be  that  her  prejudice  and  unbelief  began 
to  wear  awsij,  and  she  said: 

"I  have  a  good  mind  to  ask  Him  out  to  my  home. 
But,"  she  says,"If  I  do,  Mary,  my  sister,  will  be  very 
angry.  Lazarus  doesn't  believe  in  Him;  he  will  be 
angry  if  I  should  ask  Him.  And  then  I  will  lose  so 
many  of  my  old  friends;  they  will  cut  my  acquaint- 
ance. I  don't  know  of  any  of  my  Jerusalem  friends 
here  that  believe  in  Him;  they  all  think  He  is  an 
imposter.  It  will  never  do  to  ask  Him  to  my  home. 
I  will  lose  a  good  many  of  my  life-long  friends.  I 
cannot  afford  to  do  it." 

Perhaps  the  greatest  struggle  of  her  life  went  on 
there  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  but  when  He 
got  through  teaching,  and  the  crowd  began  to  dis- 
perse, she  said: 

^1  will  ask  him." 

She  went  and  asked  Him  out  to  Bethany.  Now 
listen:  Christ  has  never  refused  an  invitation 
during  all  these  nineteen  hundred  years.  I  don't 
care  how  dark  the  home  is;  it  may  be  the  home  of  the 
vilest  drunkard;  it  may  be  as  dark  as  midnight;  but 
ask  Him  to  your  home,  and  see  how  quicklj^  He  will 
accept  the  invitation.  When  Martha  asked  Him 
out  to  Bethany'  He  accepted  the  invitation. 


70  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood3^ 

I  can  just  imagine  the  first  night  when  she  got 
home  and  told  her  brother  and  sister  what  she  had 
^one,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  opposition.  The  first 
time  He  entered  that  home,  I  see  Mary  looking  at 
Him  in  a  ver^^  suspicious  manner.  Lazarus,  per- 
haps, doesn't  speak  to  Him.  But  He  hadn't  been 
there  a  great  while  before  He  won  His  way  into  their 
hearts,  and  all  three  became  His  disciples.  There 
was  a  dark  cloud  hanging  over  that  home  in  Beth- 
an3^  Martha  and  Mary  and  Lazarus  didn't  see  it, 
but  the  Son  of  God  saw  it.  He  knew  what  was 
going  to  happen;  He  knew  the  hour  was  coming 
when  they  were  going  to  need  Him  a  good  deal 
more,  perhaps,  than  they  did  just  then. 

From  that  time  on,  when  Christ  was  tired  and 
weary  with  His  work  in  Jerusalem,  He  would 
leave  the  temple,  go  out  the  eastern  gate,  cross 
over  the  brook  Kedron,  past  Gethsemane  where 
He  suffered,  climb  Mount  Olivet  and  go  over  beyond 
Bethphage,  and  down  its  eastern  slope  to  that 
town  of  Bethan}^  Martha  alwaj^s  had  a  room 
ready  for  Him.  The3^  loved  to  have  Him  come; 
He  received  a  warm  welcome.  He  always  comes 
where  He  is  wanted. 

My  dear  friends,  I  want  to  ask  you  a  question: 
Wasn't  it  the  best  day's  work  that  Martha  ever  did 
when  she  received  Christ  into  her  home,  when  she 
made  room  in  her  heart  for  Him?  Can  you  do  a 
better  thing  while  you  are  on  earth  than  to  make 
room  for  the  Son  of  God?  He  has  gone  up  on  high 
to  make  room  for  everj"  one  that  will  believe  on  Him. 
John  caught  sight  of  the  eternal  city.  He  gives 
us  a  description  of  the  home  Christ  has  gone  to 


No  Room  in  the  Inn.  71 

prepare:  "Let  not  j^oiir  heart  be  troubled;  ye 
believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  Me.  In  My  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions:  if  it  were  not  so  I  would 
have  told  j^ou.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you. 
And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come 
again,  and  receive  you  unto  Myself;  that  where  I 
am,  there  ye  may  be  also."  Don't  let  us  become  so 
engrossed  with  the  world  that  we  forget  Him  who 
has  gone  to  make  room  for  us  in  another  and  better 
and  brighter  world.  Don't  let  the  world  come  in 
and  crowd  that  blessed  Master  out. 

Mother,  do  you  remember  when  that  little  child  of 
yours  died?  Didn't  you  get  a  good  deal  of  comfort 
out  of  the  fact  that  the  Son  of  God  would  take  care 
of  your  child — that  He  had  made  room  up  there 
among  the  angels  and  archangels  for  your  child? 
And  will  you  let  this  world  crowd  Him  out  of  your 
heart?     Won't  you  make  room  for  Him  down  here? 

A  few  years  ago  I  was  reading  of  a  good  mother. 
A  neighbor  called  on  her  one  morning,  and  she 
was  weeping  bitterly.     The  neighbor  said: 

''What  is  the  trouble?'' 

She  answered,  ''You  know  I  have  only  one 
child,  and  that  child  is  fourteen  years  old  to-day. 
Ever  since  she  was  born  I  have  given  my  time  to 
her.  I  have  left  society.  Every  night  I  have 
taken  care  ot  her,  and  there  never  has  been  one 
night  since  that  child  was  born  that  I  haven't  been 
up  some  part  of  the  night  with  her.  An:l  after 
toiling  and  working  for  fourteen  years" — the  child 
was  idiotic — "that  child  doesn't  know  me  from  you. 
If  she  would  give  me  one  look  of  recognition,  I  would 
be  paid  for  all  I  have  ever  done.     It  is  so  hard  to 


72  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

think  that  that  child  doesn't  know  me  to-day  from 
you." 

How  many  of  us  have  received  one  blessing  after 
another  from  the  Lord  of  Glory,  and  we  never  have 
once  looked  up  and  said,  "Thank  you.  Lord  Jesus; 
I  will  make  room  in  my  heart  for  you.  You  love  me 
and  I  love  you.     I  will  serve  you." 

Be  wise;  make  room  for  the  Son  of  God.  He 
comes  knocking  at  the  door  of  your  heart,  and 
while  He  knocks  just  open  the  door  of  your  hearts 
and  say: 

"Yes,  Thou  art  welcome,  0,  Son  of  God,  into 
this  heart  of  mine." 

I  remember  one  of  the  first  times  I  ever  spoke  out 
of  Chicago.  It  was  in  the  state  of  Indiana.  A 
gentleman  met  me  at  the  train,  and  took  me  to  his 
house.  He  said  his  wife  was  busy  preparing  for 
the  meetings;  there  were  to  be  quite  a  number  of 
Sabbath  school  teachers  there,  and  she  was  to 
entertain  them,  and  she  would  like  to  be  excused; 
and  he  had  an  engagement,  and  he  wanted  to  be 
excused  too.  I  asked  him  if  he  hadn't  any  children 
that  I  might  go  out  and  play  with  them. 

"I  have  one,  but  she  is  not  here,"  he  said;  and 
presently  he  said,  "Mr.  Moody,  my  only  child  is  in 
heaven;  I  am  glad  she  is  there." 

"How  is  that?  Was  anything  wrong  with  her 
while  she  was  living?" 

"0,  no,"  lie  said,  and  he  went  across  the  room, 
took  up  one  of  those  old-fashioned  daguerreotypes, 
opened  it,  and  handed  it  to  me.  It  was  a  picture  of 
his  little  girl.  The  curls  lay  back  upon  her  neck, 
and  she  was  a  beautiful  child. 


No  Room  in  the  Inn.  73 

"How  old  was  she  when  God  took  her?"  I  asked. 

"She  was  seven  years  of  age." 

"And  you  are  glad  that  only  child  of  yours  is 
gone." 

Yes;  I  think  I  can  honestly  say  I  am  glad;  yes, 
sir." 

"Would  you  tell  me  why?" 

"When  that  child  was  alive  I  worshipped  her. 
She  was  the  idol  of  my  heart.  I  had  no  place  for 
God  in  any  of  my  plans,  everything  centered  in 
that  child.  Every  night  that  I  could  get  away  from 
business  early  I  would  take  her  out  riding.  Sun- 
days I  used  to  take  her  out  riding  and  walking.  I 
gave  up  my  time  to  that  child  on  Sunday.  We 
never  went  to  church;  we  didn't  care  for  church. 

"One  day  I  came  home  from  business  and  found 
the  child  sick.  She  never  had  been  sick.  I  thought 
she  would  soon  be  wxll,  but  before  I  knew  it  my 
child  was  dead.  I  accused  God  of  being  unjust. 
While  others  had  large  families  of  children,  and 
God  had  spared  them  all.  He  had  come  into  mj^ 
home  and  taken  my  only  child.  I  cursed,  and  was 
very  bitter.  The  third  day  I  buried  the  child. 
Up  to  that  time  I  had  eaten  nothing;  I  hadn't  shed  a 
tear — my  grief  was  too  great.  When  I  came  back  to 
my  home  it  was  as  dark  as  the  grave  where  I  had 
laid  my  child.  I  walked  up  and  down  my  room 
cursing.  All  at  once  I  thought  I  heard  her  little 
feet  coming  towards  me.  The  second  thought 
came:  No,  they  are  silent  in  the  grave — I  shall  never 
hear  them  again.  Then  I  thought  I  heard  her 
voice,  and  the  second  thought  came:  No,  that  has 
been  silenced  by  death — I  will  never  hear  that  voice 


74  Short  Talks  b^-  D.  L.  Mood3^ 

again.  Mj^  anguish  was  so  great  that  I  threw 
myself  on  the  bed  and  began  to  weep.  While  I  lay 
there  weeping  I  fell  asleep.  I  suppose  it  was  a  dream, 
but  it  alwaj^s  seemed  like  a  vision.  I  dreamed  1  was 
crossing  a  barren  field,  and  suddenly  came  to  a 
river.  It  looked  so  dark  and  cold  that  I  drew  back. 
But  I  happened  to  look  across  the  river,  and  saw  the 
most  beautiful  land  that  my  eyes  had  ever  rested 
upon.  It  was  far  better  than  this  world,  and  I  stood 
there  gazing  upon  that  land  in  my  dream.  I 
dreamed  that  death  and  sickness  and  sorrow  had 
never  entered  there.  Presently",  what  was  mj^  joy 
and  delight  to  see  beings  there,  and  they  all  seemed 
so  good  and  so  happy!  As  I  stood  there  gazing 
upon  them,  wishing  that  I  was  there,  that  I  could 
get  into  that  land  where  death  could  not  come, 
what  was  my  joj^  and  delight  to  see  my  own  darling 
child!  When  she  caught  sight  of  me,  she  left  the 
company  and  came  running  down  to  the  banks  of 
the  river,  and  she  beckoned  with  her  little  hand, 
and  said: 

"  'Father,  come  over  the  river.  It  is  beautiful 
here.     Come  right  this  way,  father!' 

"In  my  dream  I  wxnt  down  to  the  river's  edge  and 
thought  I  would  cross  it,  but  when  I  got  there  I 
found  that  it  was  too  deep.  I  couldn't  ford  it;  I 
couldn't  swim.  I  tried  to  find  a  bridge  or  ferry,  but 
I  could  find  none.  And  that  little  voice  sounded 
sweeter  than  when  on  earth,  and  she  kept  sajang: 

"  'Father,  come  right  this  way,  it  is  beautiful 
here.' 

''AH  at  once  I  heard  a  voice;  it  sounded  as  if  it 
came  from  heaven,  'I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and 


No  Room  ill  the  Inn.  75 

the  Life;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me.* 
The  voice  woke  me  from  my  sleep.  I  thought  it 
was  God  calHng  me.  I  knelt  that  very  hour  by  my 
bed,  and  gave  myself  to  Jesus  Christ;  now  my  wife 
has  been  converted;  I  am  superintendent  of  the 
Sabbath  School;  eight  children  in  that  school  have 
been  converted,  and  I  no  longer  look  upon  my  child 
as  sleeping  in  the  grave  where  I  laid  her,  but  it  seems 
to  me  as  if  I  see  her  in  that  world  of  light  beckoning 
me  to  a  better  world.  Every  night  as  I  lie  down 
it  seems  to  me  as  if  my  child  is  calling  me.  Every 
morning  when  I  get  up  it  seems  to  me  as  if  my 
child  is  saying,  ^  Come,  father,  right  this  way.' 
I  expect  to  spend  eternity  with  her." 

Am  I  not  speaking  to  many  to-day  whose  fathers 
and  mothers  have  gone  before  them,  and  if  they 
could  speak,  wouldn't  they  saj^,  "Come  this  way, 
my  son;  come  this  way,  my  daughter?"  Am  I  not 
speaking  to  parents  whose  loved  ones  have  gone 
before,  and  who  want  to  make  room  for  you  up 
there?  Thank  God,  nineteen  hundred  years  ago 
the  Son  of  God  crossed  the  stream,  and  to-day  lie 
is  calling  j^ou.  Oh,  man,  woman,  won't  you  make 
room  for  Him? 


REGENERATION. 

I  was  twenty  years  old  before  I  ever  heard  a  ser- 
mon on  regeneration.  I  was  always  told  to  be 
good,  but  you  might  as  well  tell  a  black  man  to  be 
a  white  man  as  to  tell  him  to  be  good  without  telling 
him  how.  You  might  tell  a  slave  to  be  free,  but 
that  would  not  make  him  free,  if  you  didn't  help 
him.  Christ  not  only  tells  us  to  be  free,  but  He 
frees  us.  In  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  we  read 
how  man  lost  life.  In  the  third  chapter  of  John  we 
find  how  he  gets  it  back  again. 

We  are  a  bad  lot,  the  whole  of  us,  by  nature.  It 
is  astonishing  how  the  devil  does  blind  us  and 
makes  us  think  we  are  so  naturally  good. 

Suppose  that  your  sins  could  all  be  stamped  on 
your  forehead,  do  you  not  think  there  would  be  a 
stampede?  Take  the  best  man  there  is  here,  the 
natural  man  that  never  has  been  born  from  above, 
never  has  been  born  of  the  Spirit,  and  suppose  that 
everything  in  his  heart  could  be  brought  to  light. 
Suppose  a  photographer  could  take  a  photograph 
of  the  heart,  do  you  think  they  would  find  anyone 
who  would  be  willing  to  have  such  a  photograph 
taken?  Ladies  crimp  their  hair  and  put  on  their 
best  clothes;  and  men  dress  up  and  go  to  the  barber's 
to  get  shaved,  and  then  they  go  and  have  their 
pictures  taken;  and  if  the  photographer  flatters 
them  and  makes  them  look  ten  years  younger,  they 
say,  "You  are  the  first  man  to  do  me  justice,"  and 
they  order  ten  dozen  photographs  and  send  them  to 
all  their  friends.  That  isn't  a  real  photograph. 
Suppose  he  took  a    photograph  of    your  heart, 

(76) 


Regeneration.  77 

would  you  send  those  around?  Not  much;  you 
would  break  the  plate  and  abuse  the  artist.  Don't 
talk  to  me  about  people  being  naturally  good  and 
angelic.  We  are  naturally  bad^  the  whole  of  us. 
The  first  man  born  of  woman  was  a  murderer. 
Sin  leaped  into  the  world  full  grown,  and  the  whole 
race  has  been  bad  all  the  way  down.  Man  is 
naturally  bad. 

Man  has  lost  the  image  of  God.  Take  just  one 
description  that  Christ  gives  of  the  human  heart: 
"Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders, 
adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  witness, 
blasphemies;  these  are  the  things  which  defile  the 
man."  Now,  I  want  to  ask  you  how  in  the  world 
can  you  get  a  pure  stream  when  you  have  such  an 
impure  fountain?  The  trouble  with  people  is  that 
they  are  trying  to  make  that  stream  good  while  the 
fountain  is  bad.  It  isn't  patching  up  the  old  man 
that  is  needed,  but  it  is  hewing  down  that  tree  and 
putting  a  new  graft  in.  It  is  an  entire  change — a 
new  creation. 

I  have  heard  of  reform,  reform,  until  I  am  tired 
and  sick  of  the  whole  thing.  It  is  regeneration  by 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  that  we  need.  It  isn't 
this  trying  to  make  men  believe  that  they  have  just 
come  a  little  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  if  they 
just  apply  a  little  whitewash  on  the  outside,  they 
will  be  all  right.  You  may  whitewash  a  pest-house 
but  it  will  be  a  pest-house  still. 

I  heard  an  Englishman  tell  of  a  man  who  bought 
a  farm.  There  was  a  well  on  the  farm,  and  they  told 
him  there  was  poison  in  the  well.  He  said,  "AIJ 
right,  I  will  fix  it/'  and  went  and  painted  the  pump. 


78  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

thinking  he  was  going  to  make  the  well  all  right  by 
painting  the  pump.  There  are  a  lot  of  people  who 
think  the3^  are  going  to  make  the  well  all  right  by 
painting  the  pump.  What  3^011  want  is  to  go  to  the 
source.  Make  the  fountain  good,  and  the  stream 
will  be  good.  Let  the  heart  be  right,  and  the  life 
will  be  right,  the  hand  will  be  right,  the  foot  will  be 
right.  The  seat  of  trouble  is  the  heart,  and  what 
man  needs  is  a  new  heart,  a  new  creation. 

The  new  birth  isn't  good  resolutions,  or  good 
intentions,  or  turning  oyer  a  new  leaf,  or  making 
promises,  or  making  vows.  That  isn't  the  new 
birth  at  all. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  say,  "What  is  it?" 

Well,  listen:  "He  came  unto  His  own,  and  His 
own  received  Him  not;  but  as  many  as  received 
Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  His  name: 
which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God." 

When  I  was  born  of  my  mother,  I  got  a  nature 
from  mj^  mother,  and  I  got  a  life  from  her;  but  in 
Boston  seventeen  years  afterward,  I  was  born  from 
above;  I  got  Hfe  from  God;  a  new  life,  distinct  and 
separate  from  the  natural  life.  I  got  a  life  that  is 
as  everlasting  as  God's  life;  a  life  that  there  is  no 
end  to;  eternal  life.  How  did  I  get  it?  63^  receiv- 
ing the  Word  of  God  into  my  heart.  Christ  says, 
'The  words  that  I  speak  unto  37'ou,  the3^  are  spirit, 
and  the3^  are  life."  There  is  life  in  His  word.  You 
take  the  Word  of  God  into  3^our  heart,  and  there  is 
the  germ,  there  is  the  life.  If  I  should  take  my 
watch  and  plant  it,  I  wouldn't  get  an3^  little  watches, 


Regeneration.  79 

would  I?  Why?  Because  the  germ  of  life  isn't 
there.  If  I  should  plant  a  bushel  of  gravel,  I 
wouldn't  get  any  more  gravel,  would  I?  But  let 
me  plant  a  bushel  of  corn  at  the  proper  time,  let  me 
get  the  seed  and  put  it  into  the  ground  in  the  month 
of  Ma}^  and  let  the  dews  of  heaven  come  upon  the 
land,  and  the  rain  and  the  sun,  and  out  of  the  death 
of  that  corn  will  come  a  new  life.  "The  words  that 
I  speak  unto  3^ou,  they  are  spirit  and  thej^  are  life." 
Then  the  Bible  speaks,  in  another  place,  of  "the 
incorruptible  seed,  which  is  the  Word  of  God." 

Culture  is  all  right  in  its  place,  but  to  talk  about 
culture  before  a  man  is  born  of  God,  before  he  has 
received  this  incorruptible  seed  into  his  heart,  is  the 
height  of  madness.  Suppose  I  commence  the  first 
day  of  Ma3^  and  plow  an  acre  of  groundcrosswise, 
and  the  next  daj^  I  plow  it  lengthwise,  and  every 
da}^  in  the  week  except  Sunday  I  plow  that  acre  of 
land.  I  begin  the  first  day  of  Ma}^  and  plow 
all  through  Maj^  and  June  and  July.  Once  in 
a  while  I  put  a  cultivator  in  and  cultivate  it,  and  I 
harrow  it,  and  brush  it,  and  roll  it.  I  have  been 
harrowing,  brushing,  rolling  and  cultivating  for 
months,  and  you  come  along  and  say: 

"Mood}^  what  are  you  doing?" 

"Doing!  I  am  cultivating  this  acre  of  land." 

"Well,  I  should  say  so!  I  was  around  here  last 
Maj^  and  you  were  plowing  that  acre  of  land. 
Been  at  it  ever  since?" 

"Yes." 

"What  are  you  going  to  put  in  it?" 

"Well,  I  am  not  going  to  put  anything  in  it,  but 
I  beheve  in  a  high  state  of  culture." 


8o  vShort  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

You  would  say  I  was  a  first-class  lunatic!  But 
that  is  what  is  going  on  all  the  while  in  spiritual 
ftiings. 

Put  the  seed  in,  and  then  pray  God  that  the  dew 
of  heaven  imiy  rest  upon  it,  and  j^ou  will  have  some 
results.  There  isn't  a  sower  that  goes  forth  and 
sows  that  kind  of  seed,  but  there  are  results. 

To  become  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature  is  the 
greatest  blessing  that  can  come  to  any  man  this 
side  of  heaven.  God  has  been  very,  very  good  to 
me.  1  can't  tell  you  how  good  He  has  been  these 
forty  odd  years.  It  has  just  been  blessing  upon 
blessing.  He  has  just  piled  them  up,  oh,  so  high! 
I  can't  begin  to  tell  you  the  goodness  of  God.  But 
there  is  one  blessing  that  just  towers  high  above 
them  all.  You  go  to  Washington  and  you  will 
find  there  is  one  monument  high  above  every- 
thing else^ — George  Washington's  monument.  And 
there  is  one  blessing  that  came  to  me  one  night — 
I  remember  the  night — it  was  in  a  shoe  store  in 
Boston.  I  never  go  to  Boston  that  I  don't  go 
around  and  take  a  look  at  that  place  where  God 
met  me  and  God  imparted  to  me  a  new  nature. 
Old  things  passed  away  that  night;  a  new  life 
dawned  upon  me;  and  that  is  the  greatest  blessing 
that  has  ever  come  to  me  this  side  of  heaven.  I 
got  God's  nature,  a  new  nature,  distinct  and 
separate  from  the  old  nature.  All  the  infidels  that 
I  have  had  come  to  me  during  these  forty  years  and 
trj^  to  take  it  out  of  me,  they  might  as  well  try  to 
move  Gibraltar.  Don't  I  know  there  came  a  mar- 
velous change  that  night  that  has  transformed  my 
life?    I  would  doubt  my  existence  as  quick  as  I 


Regeneration.  8i 

would  doubt  that  fact.  If  you  are  not  sure  that 
you  have  become  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature 
don't  eat,  drink  or  sleep  until  you  get  that  new 
nature. 

And  when  you  get  that  new  nature,  it  is  easy  to 
serve  God.  His  j^oke  is  easy.  His  burden  is  light. 
It  is  a  joy  and  delight.     God  isn't  a  hard  master. 

Oh,  man,  woman,  you  may  be  deceived  about 
ten  thousand  things,  but  do  not  be  deceived  on  this 
one  thing!  Make  sure  you  have  the  divine  nature, 
that  you  have  been  born  from  above,  that  you  have 
been  born  of  God,  that  you  have  a  life  that  has  come 
from  God  distinct  and  separate  from  the  natural 
life,  the  carnal  life;  a  new  life,  a  new  creation. 

In  India  the  swan  is  considered  a  sacred  bird. 
They  have  a  legend  there  that  one  day  an  old  crane 
was  out  on  the  beach  looking  for  snails,  and  down 
came  a  big  white  swan.  The  crane  stretched  out 
its  great  long  neck,  and  said  to  the  swan: 

"Where  do  j^ou  come  from?" 

The  swan  said  he  came  down  from  heaven. 

"Heaven!"  said  the  crane,  "I  never  heard  of  that 
place.     Is  it  far  away?" 

"Oh,  yes." 

"Is  it  a  good  country?" 

"Oh,  yes." 

"Is  it  better  than  this?" 

"Oh,  far  better";  and  the  swan  went  on  expatiat- 
ing about  heaven,  about  its  lakes  and  its  rivers 
and  its  fountains  and  its  climate. 

The  old  crane  stood  there  listening,  and  when  the 
swan  got  through,  said: 

"Have  they  any  snails  there?" 


82  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mooch^ 

The  swan  drew  itself  up  and  said,  "No,  vile 
things!     They  wouldn't  have  them  in  heaven." 

"Well,  then,"  said  the  crane,  'Voi-i  can  have  your 
heaven.     I  don't  want  it,  I  want  snails." 

Don't  you  see  a  might3^  truth  wrapped  up  in  that 
legend?  I  have  had  mothers  come  to  me  cind  sa3", 
"Mr.  Moodj^,  isn't  it  strange  that  my  boy  doesn't 
like  spiritual  things?  Isn't  it  strange  that  he 
would  rather  have  low  earthly  things  than  spiritual 
things?"  Strange?  No!  The  natural  man  likes 
natural  things,  of  course.  The  worldly  man  likes 
worldly  things.  A¥h\^  shouldn't  he?  And  the 
spiritual  man  likes  spiritual  things.  Did  you 
ever  see  a  young  man  that  has  a  beautiful  mother, 
a  lovely  home,  a  godl3^  father,  and  loving  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  the  home  a  little  paradise  on  earth, 
and  he  will  turn  his  back  on  that  home  and  go 
down  to  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and 
get  into  what  you  call  the  slums,  and  he  will  go 
down,  down,  until  he  gets  to  a  miserable  old  saloon 
where  he  is  willing  to  clean  out  spittoons  for  drink. 
Tell  him  his  mother  wants  him,  is  pra3^ing  for 
him,  and  will  give  him  a  warm  welcome,  tell  him 
how  his  father  will  receive  him,  tell  him  there  is 
going  to  be  rejoicing  in  his  home  if  he  will  come 
back,  tell  him  how  his  brothers  and  sisters  long  to 
have  him  come  back,  and  he  will  turn  and  say: 

"No,  I  want  whiskey- !" 

He  has  the  old  nature.     He  wants  snails. 

Tell  him  that  he  is  going  to  lose  his  soul,  tell  him 
he  is  making  shipwreck  of  his  life — in  fact  he  has 
made  shipwreck  of  his  life — tell  him  about  the  glories 
of  heaven,  and  he  will  say: 


Regeneration.  83 

"You  can  have  .  heaven  with  all  its  glory. 
You  may  have  my  mother;  I  will  crush  her  under 
my  heal.     I  despise  Christianity." 

He  has  the  old  carnal  nature.  But  if  he  gets 
God's  nature,  he  gets  out  from  those  surroundings 
pretty  quickly.  You  can't  keep  him  there,  I 
have  seen  men  down  in  the  slums  converted, 
changed,  and  the  next  night  they  would  have  a 
new  paper  collar,  and  in  the  course  of  a  week  they 
are  out  of  that  crowd.  What  men  want  is  to  be 
born  from  above,  born  again,  born  of  the  Spirit; 
and  then  they  will  live  for  heaven.  And  you  will 
never  get  a  man  or  woman  that  will  live  for  heaven 
until  the}^  are  born  from  above,  until  they  get  the 
divine  life. 

How  solemn  these  w^ords  are :  "Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God,'' 
much  less  inherit  it.  If  this  thing  be  true,  it  is  a 
most  solemn  thing,  and  you  and  I  cannot  afford 
to  be  deceived.  Let  us  put  the  question  here  to  our- 
selves:   Have  I  really  been  born  of  the  Spirit? 

I  just  as  much  believe  that  a  man  has  got  to  be 
born  from  above  before  he  wants  to  go  to  heaven, 
as  I  believe  that  I  exist.  Take  an  unregenerated 
man,  and  put  him  under  the  shadow  of  the  tree  of 
life,  and  it  would  be  hell  to  him.  Take  the  carnal 
man,  the  natural  man,  and  put  him  in  the  crj^stal 
pavements  of  heaven,  and  it  would  be  hell  to  him. 
Man  has  got  to  have  a  divine  nature  before  he  will 
want  to  go  to  heaven.  If  he  has  this  low  nature, 
he  doesn't  want  to  go  there.  He  would  be  out  of 
his  element,  he  would  be  out  of  his  atmosphere,  if 
he  got  there. 


84  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood}^ 

Make  sure  that  3^ou  are  in  the  Kingdom,  that  3^011 
have  been  born  into  it.  We  have  a  law  in  this 
country  that  no  man  can  be  president  of  the  United 
States  unless  he  was  born  here.  I  never  heard  any 
foreigner  complain  of  that  law.  I  want  to  know  if 
the  God  of  Heaven  hasn't  a  right  to  say  who  shall 
come  into  His  Kingdom,  and  hasn't  He  a  right  to 
say  how  they  shall  enter  it?     I  think  He  has. 

This  is  an  awful'^?-  solemn  question.  Put  it  now 
to  yourselves:  "Have  I  been  born  again?  Have  I 
received  the  gift  of  God,  which  is  eternal  life?"  If 
you  haven't,  let  this  truth  sink  into  3^our  soul,  that 
you  will  never  see  the  Kingdom  of  God.  You  may 
see  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  but  the  Kingdom  of 
God  you  will  never  see.  You  may  cross  the  At- 
lantic, and  3^ou  may  go  to  London  and  see  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  3^ou  may  go  to  German}^  and  see 
the  Crown  Prince  of  German}^  3^ou  ma^^  go  to  Italy, 
you  may  go  to  other  nations;  but  the  Prince  of 
Peace  you  will  never  see.  Your  uncircumcised 
e3^e  shall  never  rest  upon  him,  except  j^ou  are  born 
again.  You  may  go  to  London  and  go  into  the 
tower  of  London  and  see  the  crown  of  England,  but 
the  crown  of  glory  j^our  eyes  shall  never  rest  upon. 
You  ma3^  go  across  this  continent,  and  you  may  see 
those  trees  that  have  been  growing  out  there  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  some  of  them  were  perhaps  growing 
when  Moses  was  on  earth,  but  there  is  one  tree  that 
your  e3-es  shall  never  rest  upon,  the  Tree  of  Life 
that  grows  in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God. 
You  ma3^  see  the  beautiful  cities  of  the  earth;  you 
may  see  old  Rome,  and  London,  and  Paris,  and 
New  York  in  all  their  glory,  but  the  city  which 


Regeneration.  85 

hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God, 
your  uncircuiTicised  eye  shall  never  rest  upon. 
You  may  see  the  beautiful  rivers  of  earth;  you  maj^ 
see  the  great  Mississippi;  j^ou  may  see  the  Amazon 
and  other  mighty  rivers;  but  the  river  that  bursts 
from  the  throne  of  God,  your  eye  shall  never  rest 
upon  except  you  are  born  again. 

Mother,  perhaps  j^ou  have  not  a  hope  in  Jesus 
Christ,  That  little  child  that  left  you  a  few  months 
ago  lived  long  enough  to  twine  itself  around  your 
heart,  then  death  came  and  took  that  little  child 
into  a  brighter  and  better  world:  you  will  nevei^ 
see  that  child  again  except  you  are  born  of  God. 

Oh,  how  solemn,  how  awfully  solemn  these 
thoughts  are!  If  any  of  you  have  loved  ones  that 
have  a  glorious  hope  of  immortality,  and  they  are 
beckoning  you  to  a  better  and  brighter  world,  oh 
man,  woman,  be  wise,  be  wise  to-night;  make  sure 
you  get  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Make  sure 
nowl 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD. 

In  I  Peter  i:  l8,  we  read:  ''Forasmuch  as  ye 
know  that  ye  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible 
things,  as  silver  and  gold,  from  your  vain  conver- 
sation, received  by  tradition  from  your  fathers, 
but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot." 

Peter  was  an  old  man  when  he  wrote  those  words. 
I  suppose  the  blood  of  Jesus  grew  more  precious  to 
him  as  the  years  went  by. 

IT  REDEEMS. 

Now,  why  is  it  precious?  First,  because  it 
redeems  us.  Not  only  from  the  hands  of  the  devil, 
but  from  the  hands  of  the  law.  It  redeems  me  from 
the  curse  of  the  law;  it  brings  me  out  from  under 
the  law.  The  law  condemns  me,  but  Christ  has 
satisfied  the  claims  of  the  law.  He  tasted  death  for 
every  man,  and  He  has  made  it  possible  for  everv 
man  to  be  saved.  Paul  sa3^s,  God  gave  Him  up 
freelv  for  us  all,  and  what  we  want  to  do  is  to  take 
Him. 

Silver  and  gold  could  not  redeem  our  souls. 
Our  life  had  been  forfeited.  Death  had  come  into 
the  world  by  sin,  and  nothing  but  blood  could  atone 
for  the  soul.  If  gold  and  silver  could  have  redeemed 
us,  do  3'ou  not  think  that  God  would  have  created 
millions  of  worlds  full  of  gold?  It  would  have  been 
an  easy  matter  for  Him.  But  we  are  not  redeemed 
by  such  corruptible  things,  but  by  the  precious 
blood    of    Christ,     Redemption    means    "bu^ang 

(86) 


The  Precious  Blood.        •  87 

back";  we  had  sold  ourselves  for  naught,  and  Christ 
redeemed  us  and  bought  us  back. 

A  friend  in  Ireland  once  met  a  little  Irish  boj^ 
who  had  caught  a  sparrow.  The  poor  little  bird 
was  trembling  in  his  hand,  and  seemed  very  anxious 
to  escape.  The  gentleman  begged  the  boy  to  let  it 
go,  as  the  bird  could  not  do  him  any  good;  but  the 
boy  said  he  would  not,  for  he  had  chased  it  three 
hours  before  he  could  catch  it.  He  tried  to  reason  it 
out  with  the  boj^,  but  it  vain.  At  last  he  offered 
to  buy  the  bird.  The  boy  agreed  to  the  price,  and 
it  was  paid.  Then  the  gentleman  took  the  poor 
little  thing,  and  held  it  out  on  his  hand.  The  boy 
had  been  holding  it  very  fast,  for  the  boj^  was 
stronger  than  the  bird,  just  as  Satan  is  stronger 
than  we;  and  there  it  sat  for  a  time  scarcely  able  to 
realize  the  fact  that  it  had  got  liberty;  but  in  a  little 
it  flew  away  chirping,  as  if  to  say  to  the  gentleman: 
"Thank  you!  thank  you!  you  have  redeemed  me." 
That  is  what  redemption  is — buying  back  and 
setting  free.  Christ  came  to  break  the  fetters  of 
sin,  to  open  the  prison  doors  and  set  the  sinner  free. 

IT   BLOTS   OUT  SIN. 

It  is  precious,  because  it  h  ots  out  sin.  Thank 
God  for  that!  You  see  a  cloud,  and  it  is  gone  soon 
into  vapor  and  disappears;  can  it  ever  be  found  in 
the  history  of  the  world?  Never.  There  may  be 
other  clouds,  but  that  cloud  will  never  appear  again. 
A  child  writes  on  his  slate,  and  then  rubs  the 
writing  out.  Where  is  it  gone?  It  can  not  be  found. 
Can  any  of  your  modern  philosophers  find  it? 
And   so   does   the   blood  of  Jesus  Christ  blot  out 


S8  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

sin.  There  was  a  woman  in  Ireland  thej^  were 
telling  about  when  I  was  over  there,  that  had  a 
little  class  in  school;  and  she  asked  if  there  was 
anything  that  God  couldn't  do.  And  one  little 
child  said,  "Yes,  He  can't  see  my  sins  through  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ."  That  is  what  He  cannot 
do.     The  blood  just  blots  out. 

I  believe  that  when  we  get  to  heaven  we  will  find 
men  whom  we  have  known  to  be  thieves  and  drunk- 
ards and  murderers,  men  as  black  and  vile  as  any 
men  that  ever  trod  this  earth,  as  pure  as  the  Son  of 
God,  because  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  has  made 
them  clean.  And  so  any  man  or  woman  in  this 
wide  world  who  is  steeped  in  the  blackest  kind  of 
sin,  can  be  as  white  as  a  lily  by  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

IT  BRINGS   US  NIGH. 

Another  thing:     the  blood  brings  us  nigh. 

"But  now  in  Christ  Jesus  ye  who  sometimes  were 
far  off  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ" 
(Ephesians  ii:  13). 

It  not  only  brings  us  near  to  God,  but  brings  us 
near  to  one  another.  I  can  go  to  any  community 
where  I  am  an  entire  stranger,  and  preach  this 
doctrine  of  atonement,  and  get  better  acquainted 
in  twenty- four  hours  than  I  could  iM  talked  about 
old  Socrates  and  Plato  for  twentj^-four  3^ ears. 
The  blood  brings  us  nigh;  we  realize  that  we  are 
"blood  relatives."  The  tie  is  stronger  than  any 
natural  tie.  If  a  church  got  divided  and  I  wanted 
to  bring  them  together,  what  I  would  do  would  be 
to  preach  Christ.     Hold  up  the  cross,  and  j^ou  will 


The  Precious  Blood.  89 

get  the  true  behevers  around  it  in  a  Uttle  while; 
but  go  to  preaching  science  and  botany  and  astron- 
omy and  metaphj^sics,  and  you  will  get  them  all 
quarreling.  The  cross  is  the  drawing  power. 
The  cross  is  the  center.  Bring  people  nigh  to  it 
and  you  bring  them  nigh  to  each  other. 

Let  some  one  die,  and  see  how  quickly  the  family 
will  come  together.  So  we  gather  around  the 
cross  where  Christ  died  for  me  and  for  you.  That 
brings  us  nigh;  I  am  a  blood  relative  of  yours. 

IT  MAKES   PEACE. 

The  blood  is  precious  because  it  makes  peace, 
''Having  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  the 
cross"   (Colossians  i:  20). 

You  can  look  for  peace  the  world  over,  and  you 
will  never  find  it  until  you  get  to  the  cross.  You 
haven't  got  to  make  it;  it  is  already  made.  Did 
you  ever  think,  when  Christ  died,  He  made  out  His 
will?  Perhaps  you  thought  you  had  never  been 
mentioned  in  any  will.  Well,  you  have,  if  you  are 
a  child  of  God.  When  Christ  was  on  the  cross. 
He  made  out  His  wdll.  He  willed  His  spirit  back 
to  His  Father;  He  willed  His  body  to  Joseph  of 
Arimathea;  He  willed  His  mother  to  John  the  son 
of  Zebedee;  and  then  to  His  disciples  He  said,  "Peace 
I  leave  with  you;  My  peace  I  give  unto  you."  Joy 
and  peace  were  His  legacies.  Prett}^  good  legacies, 
weren't  the}^?     You  can  have  them  if  you  will. 

The}^  say  now-a-daj^s  that  they  can't  make  a  will 
that  is  so  sure  that  some  keen  lawyer  can't  smash 
it  all  to  pieces;  but  I  challenge  any  man  to  break 
Christ's  will.      He  rose  to  execute  His  own  will. 


90  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

Neither  man  or  devil  can  break  it.  He  made  peace 
by  His  blood  on  the  cross. 

I  want  to  say  very  emphatically  that  I  do  not 
believe  there  is  a  man  or  a  woman  on  this  earth 
who  knows  what  peace  of  conscience  and  peace  of 
mind  and  peace  of  soul  are  who  doesn't  know  the 
doctrine  of  the  atonement.  I  do  not  believe  there 
is  a  spot  where  peace  can  be  found  except  under 
the  shadow  of  the  cross.  The  billows  may  come 
surging  and  rolling  up  against  us,  but  if  we  find 
refuge  and  shelter  under  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ 
we  have  peace. 

Do  you  want  peace?  Is  your  soul  tossed  on  the 
waves  of  trouble  and  sorrow  and  persecution?  If 
you  do,  my  friends,  just  get  hold  of  this  doctrine. 

During  the  last  days  of  the  civil  war,  when  many 
men  were  deserting  from  the  South,  Secretary 
Stanton  sent  out  a  notice  from  the  War  Depart- 
ment that  no  more  refugees  be  taken  into  the  Union 
army.  A  Southern  soldier  hadn't  seen  that,  and 
he  came  into  the  Union  lines  and  they  read  the 
order  to  him.  He  didn't  know  what  to  do.  If  he 
went  back  into  the  Southern  arni}^  he  would  be 
shot  as  a  deserter,  and  the  Northern  army  wouldn't 
have  him.  So  he  went  into  the  woods  between  the 
armies  and  staj^ed  until  he  got  starved  out.  He 
saw  an  officer  going  by,  and  he  rushed  out  of  the 
woods  and  told  this  officer  that  if  he  didn't  help  him 
he  would  have  to  take  his  life.  The  officer  asked 
what  was  the  trouble.  He  told  him.  The  officer 
said: 

"Haven't  j^ou  heard  the  news?" 

"No,  what  news?" 


The  Precious  Blood.  91 

"Why,  the  war  is  over.  Lee  has  surrendered. 
Peace  is  declared.  Go  to  the  first  town,  and  get  all 
the  food  you  want." 

The  man  waved  his  hat  and  went  to  the  town  as 
quick  as  he  could. 

I  want  to  say  that  peace  is  declared,  the  war  is 
over.  Be  ye  reconciled  to  God,  and  the  whole  thing 
is  settled.  The  trouble  is  on  your  side.  The  blood 
is  on  the  mercy  seat,  and  as  long  as  it  is  there  the 
vilest  sinner  can  enter  and  be  saved  for  time  and 
eternity. 

IT  JUSTIFIES. 

It  is  precious,  because  it  justifies  me.  ''Being 
now  justified  by  His  blood  we  shall  be  saved  from 
wrath  through  Him"  (Romans  v:  9). 

I  haven't  been  able  to  climb  up  to  the  height  of 
that  word  "justified."  Do  you  know  what  it  means? 
It  is  better  than  pardon.  Justification  means  that 
there  isn't  a  charge  against  you.  Your  sins  are 
completely  wiped  out;  they  are  not  to  be  remembered; 
they  are  not  to  be  mentioned.  Think  of  it!  God 
says  He  puts  them  out  of  His  memory.  In  other 
words,  I  have  been  running  up  an  account  down  at 
the  grocery  store  for  some  j^ears,  and  I  haven't  any 
money  to  pay.  I  go  down  there,  and  the  store- 
keeper says: 

"Mr.  Mood}^,  I  have  good  news  for  you.  A  friend 
of  yours  came  here  to-day  and  paid  the  whole  l^ill; 
it  is  all  settled." 

That  is  justification.  "Who  shall  lay  anything 
to  the  charge  of  God's  elect?  God  thtit  justifieth?" 
He  won't  do  it;  He  would  be  a  strange  judge  if  He 
justified  a  nmn  and  then  brought  a  charge  against 


92  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

him.  "Who  is  he  that  condemneth?  Christ  that 
died,  yea,  rather  that  is  risen  again?"  Thank 
God  for  the  precious  blood  which  justifies  me.  No 
wonder  when  that  truth  dawned  on  Martin  Luther, 
he  rose  and  he  shook  all  Europe. 

IT  CLEANSES. 

It  is  precious  because  it  cleanses  me.  "li  we  walk 
in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  lig  ht,  We  have  fellowship 
one  with  another,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His 
Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin"  (I  John  i:  7). 

The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  from  all  sin. 
Think  of  it.  Not  a  part  of  our  sin,  but  ALL.  We 
Christians  ought  to  be  the  happiest  people  in  the 
world. 

IT  GIVES   BOLDNESS. 

And  it  is  precious  because  it  is  going  to  give  me 
boldjiess  in  the  day  of  judgment.     Isn  t  that  good? 

Do  you  know  I  pity  these  people  who  live  all 
their  life-time  under  the  bondage  of  death.  If  I  am 
behind  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  judgment  is 
already  passed;  it  is  behind  me;  it  is  not  before  me. 
Know  ye  not  that  ye  shall  judge  the  world?  People 
live  in  constant  dread  of  the  great  white  throne 
judgment.  When  that  comes,  I  am  going  to  be 
with  Christ  on  the  throne,  I  am  not  going  to  be 
judged!  That  day  is  passed  to  the  true  child  of 
God.  "He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions. 
He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,"  and  is  God  going 
to  demand  pajanent  twice?  I  am  going  to  have 
boldness  in  the  day  of  judgment. 


The  Precious  Blood.  93 

There  is  a  story  of  a  man  who  was  going  to  be 
tried  for  his  hfe,  and  if  found  guilty  there  was  no 
hope  for  him  unless  the  king  would  intercede. 
They  went  to  the  king,  and  he  finally  consented 
to  give  a  pardon,  but  he  said: 

"Let  it  be  secret,  and  if  the  man  isn't  condemned, 
do  not  say  anything  about  it;  if  he  is  condemned,  he 
can  use  the  pardon." 

The  man  went  into  court  with  the  pardon  in  his 
pocket,  and  he  was  quite  cheerful  about  his  trial. 
It  went  against  him,  and  when  the  judge  pro- 
nounced the  sentence  upon  him,  he  took  pains  to 
say  that  he  and  the  whole  court  were  shocked  to 
think  that  a  man  could  be  on  trial  for  his  life  and 
be  so  unconcerned. 

When  the  judge  got  through,  the  man  stepped  up 
and  laid  the  king's  pardon  on  the  judge's  desk,  and 
walked  out  bold  as  a  lion. 

You  have  a  charge  against  me.  What  do  I  care? 
God  has  justified  me.  He  comes  and  says,  "Moody, 
you  are  a  saved  man."  Yes,  saved  by  grace,  saved 
for  time  and  for  eternity. 


EMBLEMS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.— L  FIRE. 

The  "best  definition  I  can  find  of  "emlDlems  of  the 
Holy  Spirit"  is:  God's  chosen  illustrations  from 
natural  things  to  help  us  to  understand  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  whereby,  through  the  phj^sical 
senses,  we  may  get  a  clear  grasp  of  important 
spiritual  truth. 

The  first  emblem  of  which  I  want  to  speak  is  fire. 
There  are  three  things  that  this  holy  fire  does — it 
searches,  it  purifies,  it  illuminates. 

I.     FIRE  SEARCHES. 

Some  3^ears  ago,  at  the  beginning  of  one  of  the 
Northfield  conferences,  a  minister  preached  on  the 
text,  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  come  upon  3^ou."  Through  the  whole 
audience  there  was  hardly  a  man  that  did  not  rise 
to  show  that  he  wanted  to  receive  that  power.  A 
week  later  some  of  them  were  in  a  wretched  state. 
They  found  that  they  were  not  readj^  to  receive  the 
power,  and  we  had  to  turn  to  the  one  hundred  and 
thirty-ninth  Psalm,  last  two  verses.  What  a  day 
it  was!  I  believe  that  great  good  was  done  when 
we  got  on  our  faces  and  made  this  praj^er  from 
our  hearts:  ''Search  me,  0  God,  and  know  vny 
heart;  try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if 
there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the 
way  everlasting."  There  is  no  use  talking  to  others 
until  we  are  right  ourselves.  "Search  me,  0  God" 
— not  my  neighbor,  not  my  friend,  but  me.  If  the 
Holy  Ghost  searches  us,  it  will  be  a  heart  work. 

(94; 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  95 

This  is  precisel}^  whcit  God's  hoh^  fire  does;  it 
searches.  When  I  was  going  through  the  land  of 
Goshen  in  Egj^pt,  a  few  j^ears  ago,  as  I  came  near 
the  cit3^  of  Alexandria,  I  saw  the  strangest  sight  I. 
had  ever  seen.  The  heavens  were  lit  njD  with  a  new 
kind  of  light,  and  there  seemed  to  be  flash  after 
flash.  I  couldn't  understand  it.  I  had  heard  that 
the  Khedive  had  died,  and  that  a  new  Khedive  was 
coming  into  power.  I  found  later  that  England 
had  sent  over  some  war  vessels,  and  the  moment 
that  darkness  came  on  they  had  turned  their  search- 
lights upon  that  cit^^  It  was  almost  as  light  as 
at  noondaj^  Everj^  street  was  lit  up,  and  I  do 
not  suppose  that  ten  men  could  have  met  in  any 
part  of  Alexandria  without  being  discovered  by 
that  searchlight.  Now  I  am  anxious  that  God 
maj^  tiirn  His  searchlight  upon  us,  and  see  if  there 
be  any  evil  weiy  in  us;  and  when  we  get  right  our- 
selves there  is  no  trouble  about  reaching  other 
peoi:)le. 

2.      FIRE   PURIFIES. 

"I  indeed  baptize  3^ou  with  water  unto  re- 
pentance," said  John  the  Baptist,  ''but  He  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire."  Until  the  fire  came  the  disciples  were 
not  qualified  to  work  for  God.  They  were  all 
the  time  making  blunders.  The  two  sons  of 
Zebedee,  afterwards  noted  for  their  meekness 
and  humility,  wanted  to  call  down  fire  from 
heaven  and  consume  a  town  in  Samaria  that 
had  refused  Christ  the  common  hospitality  of  that 
day.     Christ  came  not  to  destroy  life  but  to  give 


q6  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood3\ 

life.  The  disciples  never  did  a  thing  or  said  a  thing 
that  was  worth  recording  until  the  fire  of  Pentecost 
came  and  took  the  dross  out  of  them. 

There  are  some  things  that  water  cannot  do.  It 
may  cleanse  the  outside,  but  fire  searches  not  only 
the  outside  but  the  inside;  it  is  penetrating.  Take 
a  lump  of  quartz,  filled  with  beautiful  pieces  of  gold, 
which  you  can  see  sparkle.  If  dust  gets  on  it  and 
covers  up  the  gold,  3^ou  can  wash  the  dust  oft'. 
But  there  is  one  thing  j^ou  cannot  do  with  water — 
you  cannot  get  the  gold  away  from  the  dross. 
There  is  onl}^  one  \v3.j  to  do  that — put  it  into  the 
fire  and  melt  it.  Then  the  pure  gold  will  come  out, 
and  the  dross  may  be  thrown  awa\".  What  we  need 
is  to  have  the  fire  kindled  that  shall  burn  up  all  the 
dross  and  let  the  pure  gold  shine  forth. 

Notice  also  in  the  Bible  that  when  God  called  a 
man  to  do  a  higher  service  He  met  him  in  fire, 
Moses  had  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians.  He 
had  been  forty  years  in  the  schools  of  the  Egj^ptians; 
he  had  been  forty  years  back  there  in  the  desert; 
eighty  years,  and  yet  that  man  never  did  an5^thing 
good  that  was  worth  putting  on  record!  In  fact,  he 
made  a  blunder;  he  killed  an  Egj^ptian  and  had  to 
flee.  His  life  w^as  a  failure  up  to  the  time  that  God 
met  him  at  the  burning  bush.  That  marked  a 
new  epoch  in  his  history,  and  if  you  meet  the  God 
of  the  burning  bush  you  will  remember  how  you 
met  Him.  From  the  time  that  God  met  Moses  at 
the  burning  bush,  he  became  one  of  the  greatest 
powers  this  world  ever  had.  Isaiah  and  Job  and 
Jeremiah  and  Moses,  all  of  them  had  to  fall  before 
God  and  see  their  utter  unfitness  for  the  work. 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  97 

Have  you  who  have  gone  into  Christian  work 
ever  had  any  such  experience?  Have  you  ever 
passed  through  the  furnace,  and  been  taught  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  that  all  your  natural  gifts  go  for 
naught  unless  you  have  the  fire  of  heaven  in  your 
soul?  You  can't  go  on  heavenly  missions  without 
heavenly  fire.  When  Isaiah  saw  the  vision  of  God's 
glory  he  said,  "Woe  is  me!  for  I  am  undone;  because 
I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst 
(of  a  people  of  unclean  lips;  for  mine  eyes  have  seen 
the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  Death  to  self;  that  is 
what  it  means.  The  first  step  to  a  higher  service 
is  the  end  of  self.  God's  way  up  is  down.  God 
Qever  yet  lifted  up  a  man  high  that  He  did  not 
cast  him  down  first;  never.  Self  must  be  annihil- 
ated. When  we  get  to  the  end  of  our  own  power, 
then  it  is  that  the  power  of  God  is  manifested  in  us. 

People  say  they  haven't  strength.  The  fact  is, 
they  think  they  have  too  much.  People  say  they 
haven't  wisdom.  The  fact  is,  they  think  they  have 
too  much  wisdom.  Oh,  may  this  fire  come  upon 
us.,  and  burn  up  all  our  own  strength  and  wisdom, 
so  that  we  may  lean  upon  God's  strength  and  God's 
wisdom! 

You  ask,  "How  am  I  to  humble  myself  and  get  to 
the  end  of  myself?"  I  will  tell  you.  One  look  at 
God  does  the  work.  Isaiah  saw  God  lifted  high  on 
His  throne;  and  what  a  blessing  he  has  been  all 
these  centuries.  Why?  Because  he  was  purified 
by  the  God  of  heaven  and  received  a  divine  call. 
Let  this  purifying  process  go  on.  If  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  in  your  life,  make  up  your  mind  you 
are  going  to  get  right,  first  of  all.      No  man  or 


98  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

woman  is  ready  to  receive  the  gifts  of  God  until  the 
heart  is  right. 

3.      FIRE  ILLUMINATES. 

When  God  has  searched  and  purified  you  and 
made  you  a  vessel  fit  for  His  use,  the  next  thing  is. 
He  will  illuminate  you. 

What  this  country  wants  is  some  illuminated 
Christians — men  and  w^omen  lit  up  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  If  we  are  so  lit  up  by  the  Spirit  of  God  it 
will  not  be  necessary  for  ministers  to  stir  us  up  to 
work;  they  w411  have  to  hold  us  in.  In  Hebrews, 
the  first  chapter  and  the  seventh  verse,  we  read, 
"And  of  the  angels  He  saith, W^ho  maketh  His  angels 
spirits,  and  His  ministers  a  flame  of  fire."  A  flame 
of  fire!  that  is  w^hat  we  w^ant — illumination.  As 
the  Quakers  call  it,  an  "indw^elling  light." 

What  did  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples 
get  on  the  day  of  Pentecost?  Ilhimination.  The 
light  of  heaven  flashed  in  upon  them.  Remember 
Stephen's  shining  face.  We  see  very  few  illumi- 
nated Christians  now.  If  every  one  of  us  was  illu- 
minated by  the  Spirit  of  Go.d,  how  wx  could  light  up 
the  churches!  But  to  have  a  lantern  without  any 
light,  that  would  be  a  nuisance.  A  Christian 
without  light  is  like  that.  Manj^  Christians  carr^^ 
along  lanterns  and  say,  "I  wouldn't  give  up  my 
religion  for  yours."  The3^  talk  about  religion. 
The  religion  that  has  no  fire  is  like  a  painted  fire. 
They  are  artificial  Christians.  Do  you  belong  to 
that  class?  You  can  tell.  If  you  can't,  your 
friends  can. 

There  is  a  fable  of  an  old  lantern  in  a  shed,  which 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  99 

began  to  boast  because  it  had  heard  its  master  say- 
he  didn't  know  what  he  would  ever  do  without  it. 
But  the  little  candle  within  spoke  up  and  said: 

"Yes,  3^ou'd  be  a  great  comfort  if  it  wasn't  for  me! 
You  are  nothing;  Fm  the  one  that  gives  the  light." 
•  We  are  nothing,  but  Christ  is  everything,  and 
what  we  want  is  to  keep  in  communion  with  Him 
and  let  Christ  dwell  in  us  richly,  and  shine  forth 
through  us. 

I  have  a  match  box  with  a  phosphorescent  front. 
It  draws  in  the  rays  of  the  sun  during  the  day  and 
then  throws  them  out  in  the  dead  hours  of  the 
night,  so  that  I  can  always  see  it  in  the  dark.  Now 
that  is  what  we  ought  to  be,  constantly  drawing 
in  the  raj^s  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  and  then 
giving  them  out.  Some  one  said  to  a  young  con- 
vert: 

"It  is  all  moonshine  being  converted." 

He  replied,  "Thank  3^ou  for  the  compliment. 
The  moon  borrows  light  from  the  sun,  and  so  I 
borrow  mine  from  the  Sun  of  Righteousness." 

That  is  what  takes  j^lace  when  we  have  this 
illumination. 

When  the  early  Christians  had  been  purified,  and 
at  last  were  ready,  they  lit  up  all  Jerusalem,  and  the 
light  spread  from  Jerusalem  to  Samaria  and  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  I  believe  if  we  could 
get  that  fire  of  Pentecost  into  the  church  of  God, 
Christianity  would  have  a  mighty  power. 

The  tabernacle  in  the  Wilderness  was  lit  up  all 
the  time.  The  cloud  of  the  Lord  was  upon  it  by 
day,  and  the  c'oud  of  fire  was  on  it  in  the  night,  in 
the  sight  of  the  house  of  Israel  throughout  all  their 


TOO  Short  Talks  b3^  D.  L.  Moody. 

journeys.  Then  when  Solomon  had  fin  shed  the 
temple  in  Jerusalem  the  Shechinah  came  in  and 
filled  it  with  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  fire  burned 
there  day  and  night.  What  do  we  represent  now? 
Our  bodies  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As 
the  Hol3^  Ghost  lit  up  the  tabernacle  in  the  desert, 
and  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  so  we  are  to  be  lit  up 
by  the  Spirit.  Let  us  ask  God  to  keep  this  fire  burning. 

One  verse  from  Jeremiah:  "Then  I  said,  I  will 
not  make  mention  of  Him,  nor  speak  any  more  in 
His  name.  But  His  word  was  in  my  heart  as  a 
burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was  weary 
with  forbearing,  and  I  could  not  stay."  When  we 
are  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Word  of 
God,  we  cannot  but  speak.  We  cannot  but  shine. 
A  lighthouse  does  not  need  to  make  itself  shine;  it 
can  t  help  it.  You  don't  have  to  put  up  a  notice. 
"This  is  a  lighthouse."  The  light  tells  its  own 
story.  I  pity  a  person  who  goes  around  with  a 
little  light  saying,  "Look  at  my  light;  I  shine." 
If  you  are  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  you  will  shine 
so  that  no  one  will  need  to  be  told. 

I  do  not  know  of  anything  that  America  needs 
more  to-day  than  men  and  women  on  fire  with  the 
fire  of  heaven;  and  I  have  yet  to  find  a  man  or 
woman  on  fire  with  the  Spirit  of  God  that  is  a  fail- 
ure. I  believe  it  is  utterly  impossible.  They  are 
never  discouraged  or  disheartened.  They  rise 
higher  and  higher,  and  it  grows  better  and  better 
all  the  while.  My  dear  friends,  if  you  haven't 
this  illumination,  make  up  3^our  minds  you  are 
goine  to  have  it.  Pray:  "0  God,  illuminate  me. 
0  Go^d,  fill  me  with  Thy  Holy  Spirit." 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  lOI 


EMBLEMS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.— IL  WATER. 

AVater  has  three  characteristics  as  an  emblem  of 
the  Spirit — cleansing,  fertilizing,  and  refreshing. 

We  read  in  Ezekiel  xxxvi:  25-28: 

"Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and 
ye  shall  be  clean;  from  all  your  filthiness,  and  from 
all  your  idols,  will  I  cleanse  you.  A  new  heart  also 
will  I  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within 
3-ou;  and  I  will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out  of 
your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you  an  heart  of  flesh. 
And  I  will  put  My  Spirit  within  you  and  cause  you 
to  walk  in  My  statutes,  and  ye  shall  keep  My  judg- 
ments and  do  them.'' 

Notice,  a  work  of  cleansing,  a  work  of  renewing, 
a  work  of  empowering.  In  the  fourth  chapter  of 
John  we  see  how  literally  that  was  fulfilled: 

"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  her.  If  thou 
knewest  the  gift  of  God,  and  who  it  is  saith  unto  thee. 
Give  me  to  drink,  thou  wouldst  have  asked  of  Him, 
and  He  would  have  given  thee  living  water.  Who- 
soever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  never  thirst;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into 
everlasting  life." 

He  gave  the  woman  of  Samaria  a  draught  of  that 
water,  and  it  took  all  the  vileness  from  her;  she  was 
cleansed,  and  became  a  power  from  that  very  hour. 
If  He  heard  the  prayer  of  that  fallen  Samaritan 
woman  and  gave  her  that  water,  will  He  not  hear 
3^ou  if  you  desire  above  everything  else  the  water 
of  life?     The  Lord  delights  to  hear  and  answer 


102  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

prayer.  He  gave  that  woman  more  than  she 
expected.  She  came  to  get  a  pot  of  water,  and, 
thank  God,  she  got  a  fountain  of  Hving  water 
bubbhng  up  in  her  hfe!  Water  rises  up  to  its  own 
level.  This  water  came  down  from  heaven  and 
carried  her  back  to  the  very  presence  of  God,  so  that 
she  became  from  that  very  hour  transformed  and 
changed. 

I.. WATER  CLEANSES. 

This  work  has  been  going  on  all  these  centuries. 
There  is  not  a  person  whose  heart  may  not  be  pure 
and  white  and  clean  if  he  will  let  this  living  water 
flow  into  it.  The  Lord  is  just  as  read^^  to  hear 
prayer  as  ever.  I  remember  during  the  war,  a 
soldier  who  cried  out,  "Oh,  for  a  draught  of  water 
from  my  father's  well!"  It  was  in  the  spring  of  the 
year,  and  the  water  was  mudd3^  The  dying 
soldiers  were  very  thirsty,  for  the  loss  of  b  ood  in 
the  hot  weather  brought  on  great  thirst.  That  poor 
fellow,  like  David  when  he  sighed  for  the  water  of 
Bethlehem,  said,  "Oh,  for  a  draught  of  water  from 
my  father's  well!"  I  believe  when  that  cr}^  goes  up 
from  a  thirsty  soul,  God  delghts  to  give  us  the 
living  water. 

People  ask,  "How  can  I  keep  impure  thoughts 
out  of  my  mind?"  The  Bible  tells  us  (Eph.  v:  26) 
that  there  is  no  way  except  to  let  this  living  water 
flow  constantl}^  through  3^our  mind.  We  are 
cleansed  "with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  Word." 
Let  clean  water  flow  through  a  pipe  that  is  full  of 
dirt,  and  it  will  soon  clear  the  pipe  and  come  out  as 
pure  and  clean  as  when  it  passed  into  the  pipe. 


Emblems  of  the  Hoh^  Spirit.  103 

Keep  in  mind  that  the  word  of  God  will  cleanse 
every  one  of  us  if  we  will  let  it  flow  from  Christ.  I 
have  yet  to  find  a  man  or  woman  earnestly  reading 
his  Bible  daily  who  became  a  backslider.  It  is  men 
and  w^omen  that  neglect  this  living  water,  that  get 
away  from  the  living  fountain  and  hew  out  broken 
cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water,  that  are  subjects 
for  Satan  to  work  in  and  through.  ''Wherewithal 
shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way?  By  taking 
heed  thereto  according  to  Thy  Word." 

Live  according  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  your 
life  will  become  pure.  It  is  chiefly  by  the  Word 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  deals  with  men.  Christian 
people  read  Sunday  newspapers,  made  up  of  all 
kinds  of  stuff  that  isn't  fit  to  go  into  a  home  on  a 
week  day;  they  crowd  their  minds  with  that,  and  the 
Word  of  God  is  neglected.  "Thy  word  have  I  hid 
in  my  heart  that  I  might  not  sin  against  Thee." 
An  old  Scotchilian  says,  "It  is  a  good  thing  in  a  good 
place  for  a  good  purpose."  Many  people  have  the 
Bible  in  their  heads,  or  in  their  pockets;  but  we 
need  to  get  it  down  into  our  hearts.  The  priests 
and  the  Levites  had  their  religion  in  their  heads, 
but  the  Samaritan  had  it  in  his  heart,  and  he  helped 
that  poor  wounded  Jew.  People  pray,  "Oh,  God, 
make  me  pure,"  and  then  they  neglect  the  onl^^ 
thing  in  the  world  that  will  make  them  pure.  It  is 
impossible  to  have  a  pure  life  without  the  Word 
of  God.  Sin  has  driven  God  out  of  the  hearts  of 
people.  What  we  want  is  the  Spirit  of  God  to  come 
back  and  drive  sin  out.  God  will  never  use  any 
man  or  woman  who  is  not  clean  in  heart.  God 
wants  purity  of  heart;  and  His  Spirit  will  cleanse 


104  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. " 

and  purify  every  one  who  seeks  Him  above  every- 
thing else. 

2.      WATER  FERTILIZES. 

There  is  no  use  in  looking  at  water  or  thinking 
how  delicious  it  would  be  if  we  had  it;  no  well  can 
satisfy  thirst  by  looking  at  it.  Turn  to  the  seventh 
chapter  of  John: 

"In  the  last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast, 
Jesus  stood  and  cried,  saying.  If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink.  He  that  believeth 
on  me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly 
shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water.  (But  this  spake 
He  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  believe  on  Him 
should  receive;  for  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  given, 
because  that  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified.)" 

A  good  many  people  have  life,  but  that  is  all; 
they  haven't  this  living  water  in  abundance.  They 
are  satisfied  with  their  present  attainment,  and  the 
water  doesn't  flow  out.  They  are  not  fruit-bearing 
Christians  at  all;  they  have  very  little  power.  The 
poor  Samaritan  woman  drank  deeper  than  Nico- 
demus  of  the  water  of  life.  She  turned  her  whole 
town  upside  down — no,  right  side  up.  Nicodemus 
got  a  pitcher  of  living  water,  but  this  woman  got  a 
whole  well  full.  But  in  the  seventh  chapter  of 
John's  Gospel,  we  have  the  highest  type.  If  the 
church  of  God  in  America  lived  in  this  seventh 
chapter  it  would  be  revolutionized. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  carrj-  water  up  the 
hill  when  the  old  well  at  mother's  used  to  get  dry. 
When  I  went  back  there  to  live,  I  rememberec^  how 
I  used  to  have  to  tug  the  two  pails  of  water,  so  I 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  105 

found  a  spring  on  the  mountain  side  and  laid  pipes. 
Now  I  don't  have  to  carry  water  to  my  house;  I  sit 
there  and  let  it  run.  The  first  few  years  in  my 
Christian  life  I  was  all  the  time  tugging  and  carry- 
ing water;  but  now  I  have  a  river  that  carries  me. 
Christ  came  that  we  might  have  life  more  abund- 
antly; and  He  wants  to  give  us  this  living  water, 
that  it  may  flow  in  upon  us  and  through  us.  God 
isn't  stingy.  He  doesn't  want  us  to  live,  as  we  say, 
''at  this  poor  dying  rate."  Living  rate  is  what  we 
want!  If  this  water  is  so  free  and  abundant,  you 
can  have  it,  if  you  will. 

Now  I  believe  it  is  literally  true  that  rivers  can 
flow  forth  from  us  if  we  are  only  Spirit-filled.  No 
man  or  woman  is  fit  for  God's  service  until  he  has 
been  filled.  If  I  haven't  grace  enough  to  keep  my 
temper,  the  less  I  try  to  do  for  Christ  the  better. 
One  of  the  saddest  things  in  the  world  to-day  is  to 
see  men  and  women  that  haven't  an}^  testimony 
for  Christ.  A  great  many  sisters  cannot  lead 
brothers  to  Christ  because  they  haven't  grace  enough 
to  shme,  not  enough  of  the  living  water;  it  doesn't 
flow  out.  If  people  have  to  hunt  up  your  Chris- 
tianity, it  doesn't  amount  to  much.  I  would  give 
more  for  Elijah  than  those  seven  thousand  people 
that  never  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal.  What  are  seven 
thousand  Christians  good  for  if  no  one  can  find  them 
except  the  Almighty? 

We  may  be  the  outlet  for  rivers  of  living  water, 
and  you  need  not  go  back  to  the  daj^s  of  the  apostles 
to  prove  it.  We  are  apt  to  think  that  those  were 
marvelous  days,  that  Pentecost  was  a  miracle  never 
to  be  repeated.    Pentecost  was  just  a  specimen  da^^ 


T06  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

A  few  years  ago  a  young  man  was  living  in  a 
small  town  in  England,  and  the  Lord  said  to  him: 

"Charles,  go  up  to  London,  and  rivers  of  living 
water  will  flow  from  3^011." 

Up  he  went,  and  for  forty  years  he  preached  in 
that  great  metropolis,  and  brought  thousands  to 
Christ.  Every  Wednesday  sermons  were  printed 
and  translated  into  different  languages  and  sent 
all  over  the  earth.  He  founde(J  an  almshouse  for 
the  poor.  He  was  editor  of  The  Sword  and  Troivel. 
He  had  an  orphan  asylum  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
boys,  and  another  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  girls. 
I  can't  begin  to  tell  the  streams  that  flowed  forth 
from  that  man.  He  got  the  secret,  as  a  young 
man,  of  being  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God;  and  God 
let  living  waters  flow  through  him. 

The  first  time  I  went  to  California,  I  found  as  I 
passed  through  the  beautiful  Sacramento  valley, 
that  some  of  the  ranches,  as  they  call  them,  were 
perfectly  green;  everything  seemed  so  luxuriant, 
and  there  seemed  an  abundance  of  everything; 
and  just  across  the  fence  or  line  was  another  ranch 
where  there  wasn't  a  single  thing;  everything  was 
all  dry. 

I  said  to  a  gentleman  in  the  car,  "What  does  that 
mean?" 

He  replied:  "You  must  be  a  stranger  in  this  part 
of  the  countr\^.  That  farm  that  is  so  green  is 
irrigated.  They  bring  water  down  from  the  moun- 
tains, and  it  makes  no  difference  how  long  we  have  a 
dry  season,  they  have  abundance  of  water." 

I  have  been  in  some  churches  and  have  met  a 
member  as  dry  as  a  dry  brook,  with  no  spiritual 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  107 

life  or  growth,  while  right  alongside  of  him  has 
been  one  who  was  all  the  time  bringing  forth  fruit. 
What  is  the  secret?  One  was  under  the  fountain 
and  the  other  was  not. 

When  Isaiah  preached,  it  was  the  darkest  day 
that  Israel  had  ever  seen,  but  he  could  look  forward 
and  see  a  glorious  day  coming.  "For  I  will  pour 
water  upon  him  that  is  thirsty,  and  floods  upon  the 
drj'^  ground:  I  will  pour  My  spirit  upon  thy  seed,  and 
My  blessing  upon  thine  offspring".  There  is  a 
promise.  Water  is  fertilizing.  You  can't  help 
but  bring  forth  fruit  when  there  is  abundance  of  the 
Spirit.  You  can  have  all  this  water  you  want. 
It  is  abundant,  and  God  wants  to  give  it  to  us. 

3.      WATER  REFRESHES. 

In  the  seventh  chapter  of  Revelation,  the  seven- 
teenth verse,  it  says,  "For  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall  lead 
them  unto  living  fountains  of  waters:  and  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes."  Man  and 
beast  like  to  get  near  water.  Nearly  every  large 
city  in  the  world  is  built  on  the  banks  of  some  sea 
or  ocean,  lake  or  river;  and  the  City  of  God  is 
described  as  being  on  the  banks  of  a  beautiful  river. 

"And  he  shewed  me  a  pure  river  of  water  of  life, 
c  ear  as  crj^stal,  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb.  In  the  midst  of  the  street  of 
it,  and  on  either  side  of  the  river,  was  there  the  tree 
of  life,  which  bare  twelve  manner  of  fruits,  and 
yielded  her  fruit  every  month:  and  the  leaves  of  the 
tree  were  for  the  healing  of  the  nations." 

I  have  seen  many  beautiful  rivers,  but  I  am  look- 


io8  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Mood3^ 

ing  forward  to  that  time  when  I  shall  see  the  river 
that  bursts  from  the  throne  of  God  and  flows 
through  the  midst  of  the  Paradise  of  God. 

Did  you  ever  think  that  the  last  invitation  that 
was  ever  sent  down  into  this  world  from  heaven  was 
that  we  might  come  and  take  the  water  of  life  freely? 
The  word  "come"  begins  in  Genesis  and  goes  clear 
through  to  Revelation.  Nineteen  hundred  times  we 
have  it  in  the  Bible.  The  patriarchs  took  it  up,  the 
psalmist  took  it  up,  the  apostles  took  it  up,  and  the 
voice  grows  louder  and  louder  until  it  comes  into  the 
last  book  of  the  Bible  and  the  last  chapter,  and 
a.most  the  last  verse.  "The  Spirit  and  the  Bride 
say.  Come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say.  Come. 
And  let  him  that  is  athirst  come.  And  whosoever 
will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely."  It  seems 
as  if,  after  the  Lord  had  been  in  glory  about  sixty 
years,  He  saw  some  who  said  that  they  didn't  know 
that  God  wanted  them  to  be  saved.  They  msLV 
have  been  stumbling  over  something  that  Paul  had 
said.  And  the  Lord  of  Glory  came  down  to  earth, 
and  the  first  man  He  met  was  John  on  the  Isle  of 
Patmos.     And  Christ  said: 

"John,  I  want  you  to  write  some  messages  to  the 
church." 

What  a  day  it  must  have  been  for  John!  He  took 
up  his  pen  and  began  to  write,  and  he  went  on 
writing,  writing,  and  writing. 

"Now,  John,"  the  Lord  said,  "put  in  one  more 
invitation.  Make  it  so  broad  that  all  the  world 
shall  feel  that  they  are  invited." 

And  the  last  invitation  sent  down  into  th's  poor 
thirsty  world  is:     "Let  him  that  is  athirst  come. 


Emblems  of  the  IIol}^  Spirit.  109 

And  WHOSOEVER  WILL,  let  him  take  the  water  oi 
life  freely!" 

Take  it  freelj^!  May  God  help  you  to  drink  more 
of  this  water  to-daj^  than  you  have  ever  drunk  in 
3"our  past  life. 

"Blessed  are  thej'-  which  do  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness:  for  thej^  shall  be  filled."  I 
would  rather  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  than 
have  anything  this  world  can  give;  and  if  that  is 
your  desire,  your  aim/ God  will  not  disappoint  you. 

How  easy  it  is  to  work  for  God  when  we  are  filled 
with  His  Spirit!  His  service  is  so  sweet,  so  delight- 
ful; He  is  not  a  hard  master.  People  talk  about 
their  being  overworked  and  breaking  down.  It  is 
not  so.  It  is  overworry  and  care  that  wears  people 
out.  This  nervous  prostration  that  is  overcoming 
so  many  men  and  women  of  America  is  all  because 
they  haven't  this  fullness  of  the  Spirit  that  will 
just  lift  them  above  the  turmoils  and  vexations  of 
earth. 

Now,  if  you  want  this  fullness,  remember  that  God 
commands  us  to  be  filled,  and  He  won't  disappoint 
us.  We  cannot  fill  ourselves,  nor  can  we  fill 
another.  May  God  help  us  to  get  our  eyes  higher 
than  man.  Go  to  the  living  fountain  that  flows  on 
and  on,  and  drink  to-day  until  your  thirst  is 
quenched.  If  you  want  the  Holy  Spirit  above 
everything  else,  then  nothing  else  will  satisfy  you. 
What  does  a  hungry  man  want?  Bread.  What 
does  a  thirsty  man  want?  Water.  Not  fame,  not 
honors,  not  society,  not  position.  And  the  thirsty 
soul  wants  the  living  water  to  quench  his  thirst. 
He  doesn't  want  to  drink  from  any  stagnant  pool. 


no  Short  Talks  by  D.   L.  Aloody. 

but  he  want.s  thivS  clear,  life-giving,  sparkling 
water.  I  believe  God  will  give  every  one  of  us  salva- 
tion, and  then  He  will  give  us  His  spirit  to  work  out 
this  salvation. 


EMBLEMS  OF  THE  SPIRIT.— III.  RAIN  AND 
DEW. 

Rain  and  dew  are  emblems  of  the  Spirit.  They 
are  refreshing  and  they  are  abundant.  The  rain 
falls  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust.  It  revives  the 
weeds  in  a  garden,  as  well  as  the  vegetables,  and 
makes  them  all  grow.  So  the  rain  of  God's  Spirit 
falls  on  a  community,  but  some  go  awa^"  without 
receiving  any  good.  They  are  not  willing  to 
receive  it. 

How  silently  the  dew  comes,  and  how  silentlj^  it 
passes  away.  And  so  with  the  rain.  And  the3^  are 
the  same  the  world  over.  So  it  is  with  the  Spirit  of 
God.  If  I  should  go  to  China,  or  Japan,  I  would 
find  the  same  Spirit  as  in  America. 

I  have  sometimes  been  in  a  place  where  the  very 
air  seemed  to  be  charged  with  the  breath  of  God, 
like  the  moisture  in  the  air.  I  remember  one  time 
as  I  went  through  the  woods  near  Mount  Hermon 
school  I  heard  bees,  and  asked  what  it  meant. 

"Oh,"  said  one  of  the  men,  "they  are  after  the 
honey-dtiv." 

"What   s  that?"  I  asked. 

He  gave  me  a  chestnut  leaf,  and  told  me  to  put 
my  tongue  to  it.  I  did  so,  and  the  taste  was  sweet 
as  honey.  Upon  inquiry  I  found  that  all  up  and 
down  the  Connecticut  valley  what  thej^  call  "honey- 


Eiiiblcins  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  ~iii 

dew"  had  fallen,  so  that  there  must  have  been 
altogether  hundreds  of  tons  of  honey-dew  in  this 
region.  Where  it  came  from  I  don't  know.  It 
sometimes  seems  as  if  the  honey-dew  of  heaven 
has  fallen  for  us,  and  if  any  one  has  not  tasted  its 
sweetness,  it  is  his  own  fault. 

Do  you  suppose  that  this  world  would  be  worth 
living  in  if  it  were  not  for  the  dew  and  the  rain?  A 
church  that  hasn't  any  of  the  dew  of  heaven,  any  of 
the  rain  that  comes  down  in  showers,  will  be  as 
barren  as  the  world  would  be  without  the  dew  and 
rain. 

There  are  some  mornings  where  there  is  no 
dew,  but  thank  God  3^ou  can  have  the  dew  of  heaven 
every  morning!  I  never  have  seen  a  man  or  woman 
who  spent  fifteen  or  twent}^  minutes  alone  with  God 
every  day  that  didn't  have  the  dew  all  the  while. 
I  have  never  known  one  to  backslide,  either.  You 
never  get  more  than  one  day's  journey  from  Christ 
if  3^ou  come  to  Him  every  morning.  Shut  the 
world  out.  Get  closeted  with  God  and  you  wdll 
learn  His  secrets.  I  like  to  get  up  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning  and  turn  the  key  and  be  alone,  and  let 
God  talk  with  me. 

Some  people  saj^:  "I  cannot  concentrate  my 
thoughts.     M}^  mind  just  goes  all  over  the  world." 

Well,  that  is  true.  There  is  no  bigger  tramp  on 
the  earth  than  the  human  mind.  It  is  astonishing 
how  the  mind  1  ravels;  and  3^ou  ask.  How  can  we 
bring  our  thoughts  into  captivity  and  have  fellow- 
ship with  God,  instead  of  thinking  of  ourselves  and 
everything  under  the  sun? 

Prayer  is  important,  but  there  is  something  else 


112  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

as  important.  When  I  pray  I  am  talking  to  God; 
when  I  read  the  Bible  God  talks  to  me.  We  need 
both.  They  help  us  to  bring  our  thoughts  into 
captivity.  You  will  never  get  much  of  an  uplift 
if  you  talk  with  yourself.  I  heard  of  a  man  who 
thought  so  much  of  himself  that  he  shook  hands 
with  himself  every  morning.  What  is  the  best  sign 
that  I  have  good,  healthy  lungs?  It  is  that  I  am 
not  conscious  of  them.  But  if  I  have  a  diseased 
lung,  I  think  of  that  lung  all  the  time.  The  health- 
iest Christian  is  the  man  or  woman  who  thinks  of 
God,  not  of  himself. 

The  way  to  overcome  impure  thoughts  is  to  fill 
the  mind  with  better  thoughts.  You  can  do  that 
by  Bible  study  and  prayer. 

Notice,  again,  that  you  find  dew  only  when  the 
sky  is  clear  overhead.  If  any  cloud  comes  between 
us  and  God  the  dew  of  heaven  ceases  to  refresh  us. 
If  you  are  in  that  condition  ask  God  to  let  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness  arise  and  dissipate  the  clouds. 

There  is  no  dew,  either,  if  there  is  much  wind. 
Haven't  you  sat  under  some  men's  preaching  and 
felt  that  it  was  all  wind,  no  dew?  When  the  Spirit 
of  God  falls  on  a  man  his  words  have  weight,  because 
he  is  not  speaking  his  own  wisdom,  but  receives 
his  message  from  on  high. 

In  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Hosea  we  have 
these  words: 

'T  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel:  he  shall  grow  as 
the  lily,  and  cast  forth  his  roots  as  Lebanon.  His 
branches  shall  spread,  and  his  beauty  shall  be  as 
the  olive  tree,  and  his  smell  as  Lebanon.  They 
that  dwell  under  His  shadow  shall    return;  they 


EmbleiiLs  of  the  Iloh^  Spirit.  113 

shall  revive  as  the  corn,  and  grow  as  the  vine:  the 
scent  thereof  shall  be  as  the  wine  of  Lebanon. 
Ephraim  shall  say,  What  have  I  to  do  any  more 
with  idols?  I  have  heard  Him,  and  observed  Him: 
I  am  like  a  green  fir  tree.  From  me  is  thy  fruit 
found." 

Notice  the  seven-fold  result  when  God  became  as 
dew  to  Israel:  (i)  blossoming,  (2)  rooting,  (3)  spread 
ing,  (4)  beauty,  (5)  fragrance,  (6)  influence  over 
others,  (7,  renunciation  of  idols. 


EMBLEMS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.— IV.  WIND. 

The  emblem  wind  has  four  characteristics  that  I 
want  to  call  your  attention  to.  It  is  independent, 
reviving,  sensible  iji  its  effects,  and  powerful. 

I.      WIND  IS  INDEPENDENT. 

The  wind  is  independen  .  God  chooses  His  own 
instrument.  When  He  works.  He  will  sometimes 
pass  by  the  very  one  you  expect  Him  to  use,  and 
He  will  mark  out  a  path  for  Himself  to  work  in. 
When  the  Spirit  of  God  moves,  man  cannot  dictate 
the  time  or  the  manner. 

Christ  said  to  Nicodemus,  "The  wind  bloweth 
where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof, 
but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it 
goeth;  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
You  cannot  understand  the  workings  of  the  Spirit. 
See  how  the  Spirit  passed  by  Cambridge  and  Oxford 
and  breathed  upon  that  drunken,  blaspheming 
tinker  in  the  Bedford  jail,  and  turned  him  into  one 


114  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

of  the  most  poUshcd  shafts  England  has  ever  had. 
Not  a  nobleman  or  duke  but  looked  down  on  him 
while  he  was  on  earth,  3^et  not  long  ago  a  duke 
unveiled  a  monument  to  him,  and  now  nearh^  every 
duke  in  England  would  be  glad  to  pay  honor  to  John 
Bunyan.  "The  wind'  bloweth  where  it  listeth." 
We  cannot  tell  why.  So  the  Spirit  of  God  is  inde- 
pendent. He  works  w^here  He  pleases;  we  are  not 
to  dictate. 

Another  thing.  You  can  traffic  in  fire  and  in 
water  and  in  oil,  but  j^ou  can't  traffic  with  the  wind. 
That  is  independent.  No  man  can  control  it;  no 
man  can  measure  it;  no  man  can  buy  it  or  sell  it. 
Wind  goes  into  the  darkest  lanes  and  homes  as  well 
as  into  palaces,  and  it  gives  ventilation  to  all  kinds 
of  people  in  all  places. 

2.      WIND  IS   REVIVING. 

The  next  thought.  Wind  is  reviving.  In  the 
thirty-seventh  chapter  of  Ezekiel  we  have  that 
wonderful  vision  of  the  dry  bones.  The  bodies 
were  formed  at  the  word  of  the  prophet,  but  not 
until  the  breath  of  God  came  upon  them  did  they 
live. 

"Then  said  He  unto  me.  Prophesy  unto  the  wind, 
prophesy,  son  of  man,  and  say  to  the  wind.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  God;  Come  from  the  four  w^inds,  0 
breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  that  they 
may  live.  So  I  prophesied  as  He  commanded  me, 
and  the  breath  came  into  them,  and  they  lived,  and 
stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  exceeding  great  army." 

It  was  a  prophecy  of  the  reviving  of  the  whole 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Si)irit.  115 

house  of  Israel:  "I  shall  put  mj^  Spirit  in  j-ou,  and 
ye  shall  live"  (v:  14). 

'And  when  the  da}^  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come, 
they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place.  And 
suddenly  there  came  a  sound  from  heaven  as  of  a 
rushing,  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house 
where  the}^  were  sitting"  (Acts  ii:  2). 

I  don't  know  of  anything  this  country  needs  so 
much  as  Pentecostal  people.  I  have  heard  of 
reforms  until  I  am  tired  of  it.  These  settlements  in 
cities  too  often  banish  Christ;  they  don't  want 
Christ.  The  boast  has  been  made  that  they  are 
going  to  lift  up  these  cities  without  the  Son  of  God. 
They  are  cultivating  a  crab  apple  tree,  and  they 
will  have  nothing  but  crab  apples  when  they  get 
through.  I  have  seen  it  in  London,  in  New  York, 
and  in  Chicago,  and  it  is  a  miserable  failure. 

My  dear  friends,  don't  sneer  at  revivals.  Would 
to  God  we  had  Pentecost  repeated  in  every  American 
city.  There  isn't  a  denomination  that  hasn't 
sprung  out  of  a  revival.  I  don't  know  o  anything 
this  country  needs  so  much  as  a  revival,  and  I 
would  put  my  hand  in  a  red  hot  furnace  quicker 
than  talk  against  revivals.  What  will  take  infidel- 
ity out  of  men?  The  fires  of  Pentecost,  the  breath 
of  heaven. 

Wind  is  good  to  blow  away  chaff.  Don't  be  afraid 
of  the  wind.  "A  religion  without  Christ" — that  is 
the  cry  of  the  world  to-day.  I  wouldn't  give  a  snap 
of  my  finger  for  a  merely  historical  Christ  who 
only  touches  your  head.  What  we  want  is  a  per- 
sonal, ever-living  Christ  to  renovate  our  hearts  and 
transform  our  lives. 


Il6  Short.  Talks  by  D.   L.  Aloody. 

3.      WIND   IS   SENSIBLE  IN   ITS  EFFECTS. 

In  the  North  of  England  thej^  have  been  digging 
the  coal  for  a  century.  They  have  gone  miles  and 
miles  away  from  the  shaft,  under  the  sea,  and  there 
IS  danger  of  men  getting  lost.  I  heard  of  two  old 
miners  who  lost  their  waj^  Their  lights  went  out, 
and  they  were  in  danger  of  losing  their  lives.  After 
wandering  around  for  a  long  time,  they  sat  down, 
and  one  of  them  said: 

"Let  us  sit  perfectly  quiet,  and  see  if  we  cannot 
feel  which  wa}^  the  air  is  moving,  because  it 
alwa3^s  moves  towards  the  shaft." 

There  they  sat  for  a  long  time,  when  all  at  once 
one  of  them  felt  a  slight  touch  on  his  cheek,  and  he 
sprang  to  his  feet,  and  said: 

"I  felt  it." 

They  went  in  the  direction  in  which  the  air  was 
moving,  and  reached  the  shaft. 

Sometimes  there  comes  a  little  breath  from  God 
that  touches  our  souls.  It  ma^^  be  so  gentle  and 
faint  that  you  barely  recognize  it;  but  if  you  do,  do 
not  disregard  it.  Thank  God  that  He  has  spoken 
to  you,  and  praise  Him  for  it,  and  whatever  may 
come  do  not  go  in  the  opposite  direction.  Give 
yourself  up  to  be  led  by  it,  and  you  will  come  out 
of  darkness,  out  of  bondage,  out  of  sorrow,  into 
perpetual  light  and  joy. 

The  air  is  always  in  motion.  Did  you  ever  think 
what  awful  death  and  stagnation  would  occur  if 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  wind?  What  misery 
and  gloom  would  settle  down  upon  this  world!  We 
would  not  live  long  if  the  air  never  moved.  If  you 
are  in  a  place  where  there  seems  to  be  death  and 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  117 

stagnation,  get  out  as  quickly  as  you  can,  and  get 
into  a  place  where  God  will  bless  you. 

4.      WIND  IS   POWERFUL. 

Then  wind  is  powerful.  Sometimes  it  sleeps, 
and  at  other  times  it  travels  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred 
miles  an  hour.  We  cannot  tell  whence  it  comes  or 
w^ hither  it  goes.  In  Missouri  a  few  years  ago  after 
one  of  those  western  cyclones,  I  found  a  hickory 
tree  about  as  big  as  my  arm  that  had  been  taken  by 
the  wind  and  shot  right  through  a  tree  as  big  as  my 
body; 

There  is  power  in  the  wind,  and  there  is  power  in 
the  Spirit  of  God.  George  Muller  said  that  he  was 
an  habitual  thief  at  ten  years  of  age.  His  father 
sent  him  to  the  Lutheran  pastor  with  his  confirma- 
tion money,  and  he  sto'e  eleven- twelfths  of  it.  He 
and  another  young  man  went  through  Switzer'and, 
and  he  w^as  treasurer,  and  he  stole  his  companion's 
money.  He  was  a  confirmed  drunkard  at  sixteen. 
He  was  in  prison  before  he  was  seventeen.  For 
thirteen  weeks  he  lay  on  his  bed  with  a  disease  he 
had  contracted  in  sin.  He  was  given  up  by  ever3^- 
body  as  a  hopeless  case;  but  the  Spirit  of  God  power- 
fully converted  him,  and  he  became  one  of  the  most 
useful  men  of  this  century.  The  idea  of  people 
talking  against  anything  that  will  transform  a 
man  like  that!  The  idea  of  throwing  their  influence 
against  it! 

My  dear  friends,  let  us  get  back  to  the  old  ways. 
We  need  these  old  revivals.  May  God  give  them 
to  usl 


Ii8  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

EMBLEMS  OF  THE   HOLY  SPIRIT.— V.  THE 
SEAL. 

I.      THE  SEAL  IMPRESSES. 

A  gentleman  in  Ireland  had  a  seal  made  for  me. 
"D.  L.  M."  is  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other,  ''God  is 
love."  If  I  want  to  stamp  "God  is  love"  I  would 
not  make  much  headway  if  the  wax  was  hard  and 
cold.  Many  people  go  to  meetings,  and  it  is  as 
hard  to  make  an  impression  on  them  as  to  press 
a  seal  on  hard  wax.  But  let  the  wax  be  warmed 
up  and  an  impression  is  made.  If  we  are  willing, 
every  one  of  us  may  be  sealed  for  the  day  of  redemp- 
tion. 

"In  whom  ye  also  trusted,  after  that  ye  heard  the 
Word  of  Truth,  the  gospel  of  your  salvation:  in 
whom  also  after  that  ye  believed,  ye  Were  sealed 
with  that  Hoty  Spirit  of  promise  "  (Eph.  i:  13). 

2.      THE  SEAL  SECURES. 

I  don't  believe  that  any  man  or  woman  has 
assurance,  who  has  not  been  sealed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  for  the  day  of  redemption. 

One  purpose  of  sealing  is  for  safety.  Every 
summer  the  Connecticut  river  is  full  of  logs  that 
are  floated  down  from  the  mountains  up  north. 
If  I  should  take  one  of  those  logs  out  of  the  river, 
I  might  be  put  into  prison,  because  every  log  is 
stamped  with  the  seal  of  the  owner.  So  the  seal 
of  the  Spirit  is  upon  every  child  of  God;  they  are 
sealed  for  the  day  of  redemption. 

"Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye 


EmbleiUvS  of  the  Holj^  Spirit.  119 

are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption"  (Eph.  iv: 
29-30). 

People  ask  how  thej^  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Bitterness  in  the  heart  grieves  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  so  does  a  corrupt  communication  that  proceeds 
out  of  your  mouth.  We  must  be  pure  in  thought, 
and  in  word,  and  in  deed,  or  we  will  grieve  the 
Holj^  Spirit.  When  a  man's  heart  is  right,  it  does 
not  take  long  for  God  to  impress  upon  him  the  seal, 
which,  I  believe,  is  the  love  of  God;  He  seals  us  in 
that  wa3^. 

If  your  heart  is  full  of  love  you  will  have  all  the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit.  Some  one  has  said  that  all  the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  maj^  be  expressed  in  terms  of 
love  as  follows: 

Joy  is  love  exulting. 
Peace  is  love  in  repose. 
Longsuffenng  is  love  untiring. 
Gentleness  is  love  in  society. 
Goodness  is  love  in  action. 
Faith  is  love  on  the  battlefield. 
Meekness  is  love  in  school. 
Temperance  is  love  in  training. 

EMBLEMS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.— VL  THE 
DOVE. 

The  next  emblem  of  which  I  want  to  speak  is  the 
dove:  gentle,  meek,  innocent. 

You  read  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb,  but  you 
never  read  of  the  wrath  of  the  Spirit.  W^e  are  told 
in  one  place  that  men  sought  to  take  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  by  violence,  but  Christ  says  that  the 
nieek  shall  inherit  the  earth.  All  the  world  uses  the 
dove  as  the  emblem  of  peace  and  purity.      It  symbol- 


120  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody.  . 

izes  harmlessness.  It  seldom  fights,  and  is  easily 
frightened. 

I  have  read  a  beautiful  legend  about  a  conference 
held  by  the  doves  to  decide  where  they  should  make 
their  abode.  One  suggested  that  they  should  go 
to  the  woods;  but  the  objection  was  made  that  there 
they  would  be  in  danger  from  hawks.  Another 
mentioned  the  cities;  but  boys  wo^dd  stone  them 
there,  and  drive  them  away  or  kill  them.  Presently 
some  dove  suggested  that  they  go  and  hide  in  the 
clefts  of  the  rocks,  and  there  they  were  safe.  ''Oh, 
ye  that  dwell  in  Moab,  leave  the  cities  and  dwell 
in  the  rock,  and  be  like  the  dove  that  maketh  her 
nest  in  the  side  of  the  hole's  mouth"  (Jer.  xlviii:  28). 

In  the  next  place,  the  dove  stands  for  meekness, 
humilit}^.  The  hardest  thing  that  the  devil  has 
ever  had  to  do  in  this  world,  in  my  opinion,  is  to 
counterfeit  humility.  He  can  counterfeit  all  the 
other  graces  better  than  humility.  A  hypocrite 
is  never  meek. 

A  prominent  Edinburgh  lawyer  gave  me  this 
thought:  "Humilit3^,  the  fairest  and  loveliest 
flower  that  grew  in  Paradise,  and  the  first  that 
died,  has  rarely  flourished  since  on  mortal  soil. 
It  is  so  frail  and  so  delicate  a  thing  that  it  is  gone 
if  it  but  looks  upon  itself;  and  they  who  venture 
to  show  it  prove  by  that  single  thought  they  have 
it  not." 

That  is  the  lesson  that  we  get  from  the  emblem 
of  the  dove.  D:'.  Gordon  said  once  that  when  Noah 
sent  the  dove  out  of  the  ark  it  returned  because  it 
could  not  find  a  resting  place;  but  when  Jesus  came 
up  out  of  the  Jordan,  the  dove  found  a  resting 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  121 

place,  and  it  came  and  rested  on  the  Son  of  God, 
Full  of  meekness,  full  of  gentleness  and  innocence. 
That  is  what  we  want  to  be.  God  calls  us  to  be  wise 
as  seri^ents,  but  harmless  as  doves. 

EMBLEMS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.-VIL  OIL. 

Oil,  as  an  emblem  of  the  Spirit,  stands  for  four 
things — consecration,  comfort,  healing,  life  (I  John 
ii:  20).  "But  ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy 
One  and  ye  know  all  things."  An  unction  from  the 
Holy  One.  Define  it?  I  cannot;  but  I  believe  in 
it.  The  Spirit  of  God  dwelling  in  me  and  making 
me  a  son  of  God  is  one  thing,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
coming  upon  me  and  anointing  me  for  service  is 
another  thing.  This  anointing  for  service,  conse- 
cration, isn't  for  preachers  only.  A  woman  in  the 
home  or  a  girl  in  college  needs  it  as  much  as  the 
preacher.  The  man  on  Wall  street  or  on  the  farm 
needs  it  as  much  as  the  man  in  the  pulpit.  On  the 
day  of  Pentecost  the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon  the 
ivhole  church;  upon  women  as  well  as  upon  men, 
upon  laymen  as  well  as  upon  preachers. 

I.      OIL  STANDS   FOR  CONSECRATION. 

In  the  Bible  we  find  that  men  were  anointed  for 
different  things.  Noah  was  anointed  to  build  the 
ark.  Moses  was  anointed  to  bring  the  children  of 
Israel  out  of  bondage.  Joshua  was  anointed  to 
lead  the  army  of  God.  David  was  anointed  to  be 
king.  Daniel  was  anointed  to  be  a  statesman — 
oh,  that  we  had  more  like  him!  Ezekiel  was 
anointed  to  j^rophesy.     Paul  was  anointed  to  preach 


122  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

the  gospel.  I  don't  believe  that  a  man  or  woman  is 
fit  for  God's  service  until  he  has  been  anointed. 
Christ  Himself  didn't  begin  to  work  until  He  had 
been  baptized  with  the  Spirit  for  service.  If  He 
needed  to  be  baptized,  do  not  we  need  it?  I  venture 
to  say  if  I  should  put  that  question,  "Have  ye  re- 
ceived the  Holj^  Ghost  since  ye  believed?"  you 
wouldn't  know  much  more  about  it  than  those  men 
did  in  Ephesus.  You  received  the  Spirit  when  you 
were  converted  and  He  came  to  dwell  with  you,  to 
make  you  a  son  or  daughter  of  God,  but  you  may 
not  have  received  power  for  service.  How  many 
are  after  the  power  without  the  unction? 

Oil  was  used  to  anoint  a  king.  Elisha  anointed 
kings,  but  Elijah  anointed  Elisha.  Anointing  is 
an  inaugurating  for  higher  service.  God  called 
Elisha  to  take  Elijah's  place,  and  Elisha  wanted  to 
be  qualified  for  his  work  by  receiving  a  double  por- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  Elijah.  Only  the  God  of  Elijah 
could  equip  him.  Elijah  said,  "If  you  see  me  when 
I  am  taken  away  from  you,  j^ou  shall  have  what 
you  ask."  Elisha  wouldn't  lose  sight  of  him  after 
that.  I  have  an  idea  he  locked  arms  with  Elijah 
and  walked  along  w  th  him  until  the  whirlwind 
came  and  snatched  him  away.  Elisha  was  dead 
in  earnest,  and  he  received  what  he  wanted.  Elisha 
performed  twice  as  manj^  miracles  as  Elijah.  If 
you  want  this  anointing,  vuy  friends,  God  won't 
disappoiiit  j'Ou.     Oh,  seek  it  with  all  your  heart! 

"The  anointing  which  ye  have  received  of  Him 
abideth  in  you,  and  ye  need  not  that  any  man 
teach  you:  but  as  the  same  anointing  teacheth  you 
of  all  things,  and  is  truth,  and  is  no  lie,  and  even  as 


Emblems  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  123 

it  hath  taught  you,  ye  shall  abide  in  Him"  (I  John 
ii:  27). 

Notice  how  Peter  was  taught  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost. The  Holy  Ghost  enlightened  the  whole 
church.  Men  couldn't  resist  the  wisdom  even  of 
Stephen.  The  true  wisdom  for  God's  work  comes 
from  God  and  not  from  books.  Education  is  all 
right  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  if  that  is  all  you  have, 
you  will  be  a  dead  failure.  What  you  need  for  God's 
work  is  an  anointing  of  the  Spirit.  I  know  of  a 
number  of  ministers  who  became  discouraged  and 
were  going  to  give  up  the  ministry,  but  they  received 
this  anointing,  and  one  of  them  has  become  one  of 
the  most  useful  men  in  the  pulpit  to-day.  When  I 
first  met  F.  B.  Meyer,  of  London,  he  was  preach- 
ing in  a  little  Baptist  church  in  York,  England, 
which  didn't  hold  four  hundred  people  and  wasn't 
half  filled.  But  this  truth  dawned  upon  him;  he 
surrendered  his  will  and  sought  this  anointing, 
and  to-day  he  is  one  of  the  best  read  and  most 
widely  used  men  on  this  earth.  He  has  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  flourishing  churches  in  the  great 
city  of  London. 

In  Leviticus,  the  fourteenth  chaj^ter  and  twent}^- 
eighth  verse,  we  read: 

"And  the  priest  shall  put  of  the  oil  that  is  in  his 
hand  upon  the  tip  of  the  right  ear  of  him  that  is  to 
be  cleansed,  and  upon  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand, 
and  upon  the  great  toe  of  his  right  foot,  upon  the 
place  of  the  blood  of  the  trespass  offering.  And  the 
rest  of  the  oil  that  is  in  the  priest's  hand  he  shall  put 
upon  the  head  of  him  that  is  to  be  cleansed,  tc  make 
an  atonement  for  him  before  the  Lord." 


124  Short  Talks  by  D.  L.  Moody. 

I  used  to  wonder  what  that  could  mean.,  oil 
upon  the  ear  and  upon  the  thumb  and  upon  the  toe 
of  the  foot.  But  it  is  al!  clear  now.  I  believe  it  is 
only  those  that  have  that  consecrated  oi'  touch 
their  ear  that  are  going  to  hear  the  voce  of  God. 
It  was  put  upon  the  hand  that  the  man  m  ght  work 
for  God.  It  is  upon  the  foot  that  we  may  walk  with 
God.  There  is  no  real  power  until  we  have  fellow- 
ship with  God,  and  we  can't  have  that  until  we  are 
separated  from  the  world. 

If  we  receive  this  consecration  it  will  separate  us 
from  the  world  quicker  than  anything  else.  We 
will  not  want  to  ^o  where  our  influence  maj^  be 
crippled  or  our  testimony  may  be  marred.  I  don't 
know  of  anything  that  the  church  of  God  in 
America  needs  to-day  more  than  separation  from 
the  world. 

I  believe  that  theatre-going  destroj's  j^our  influ- 
ence, even  if  j^ou  go  to  so-called  good  plays.  I 
want  to  tell  you  how  I  had  my  eyes  opened: 

I  had  an  assistant  superintendent  of  a  Sabbath 
school,  a  very  promising  j^oung  man,  who  seemed 
to  be  very  happy  in  the  work.  A  star  actor  came 
to  the  city,  and  he  went  to  see  him.  I  knew  nothing 
of  it,  but  the  next  Sunday  when  he  came  into  the 
Sunday  School,  all  over  the  building  they  cried  out, 

"Hypocrite!  h^^pocrite!" 

The  perspiration  started  out  of  everj^  pore  of  m^^ 
body;  I  thought  they  were  looking  at  me.  I  said 
to  the  little  newsboy's: 

"Whom  are  j^ou  calling  a  hj-pocrite?" 

They  mentioned  the  assistant  s  name.  I  asked 
the  reason,  and  they  said: 


Emblems  of  the  Hoh"  Spirit.  125 

'''We  saw  him  going  into  the  theatre." 
I  had  never  said  anj^thing  about  the  theatre  to 
those  children,  but  they  saw  that  man  going  in  and 
called  him  a  hj^pocrite.  He  lost  his  influence 
entirely,  withdrew  from  the  ^school,  and  after  a 
while  gave  up  Christian  work  altogether.  He  was 
just  swept  along  with  the  tide  in  Chicago  and  was 
lost.  Consecration  means  separation.  If  you  want 
power,  you  can  have  it,  but  it  msiy  mean  that  you 
must  give  up  a  great  many  things.  Any  one  can 
go  with  the  world,  but  it  takes  strong  character  to 
go  against  the  current.  A  disciple  in  the  world 
is  all  right,  but  the  world  in  a  disciple  is  all  wrong. 
A  ship  in  the  water  is  all  right,  but  water  in  the 
j^hip  will  sink  it.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  in  the 
world  and  not  of  it.  You  can  have  power  to  lead 
others  to  Christ,  every  one  of  you,  if  you  are  only 
ready  to  be  consecrated,  anointed  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  service. 

2.   OIL  STANDS  FOR  COMFORT  AND 
HEALING. 

''The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because 
the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the 
broken  hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 
and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are 
bound;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord, 
and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God;  to  comfort  all 
that  mourn;  to  appoint  unto  them  that  mourn  in 
Zion,  to  give  unto  them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil 
of  joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise  for  the 
spirit  of  heaviness;  that  they  might  be  called  trees 


126  Short  Talks  bu  D.  L.  I\Iood3^ 

of  righteouvsness,  the  planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He 
migh  be  glorified"  (Isaiah  Ixi :  1-3). 

There  is  healing  and  coinfort.  We  need  more 
jo^Tul  Christians.  We  have  i:)lenty  of  long-faced 
Christians;  they  retard  the  cause  of  Christ.  When 
Christ  was  on  the  cross  He  made  His  will.  He 
willed  His  Spirit  back  to  His  Father;  He  willed  His 
mother  to  John,  the  son  of  Zebedee;  He  willed  His 
body  to  Joseph  of  Arimathea  and  Nicodemus;  but 
to  His  disciples  He  left  His  peace  and  His  joy. 
Nowadays  the  keen,  sharp  lawyers  can  break  any 
will  a  man  can  draw  up;  but  I  challenge  you  to 
break  Christ's  will.  He  arose  to  execute  His  own 
will.  We  need  more  Christians  who  are  living  wit- 
nesses of  their  heritage — Christians  with  shining 
faces.  Some  people  alwaj^s  have  a  bill  of  complaint 
as  long  as  your  arm. 

There  is  a  difference  between  joy  and  happiness. 
Happiness  is  what  happens  to  your  liking.  If  things 
go  all  right  we  are  happ3^,  and  if  the^^  go  all  wrong 
we  are  down  in  the  dumps.  Joy  goes  deeper;  it 
flows  right  on  day  and  night  irrespective  of  circum- 
stances. The  larks  sing  in  the  morning,  but  any- 
body can  sing  in  the  sunshine.  Joy  is  like  the 
nightingale  that  sings  in  the  night. 

Can  you  sing  when  everything  is  dark  around 
you?  If  you  have  the  joj^  of  the  Lord,  3^ou  can. 
The  joy  of  the  Lord  will  carry  us  right  through  the 
night  and  keep  us  in  perpetual  peace  and  joy. 

The  psalmist  prayed,  "Restore  unto  me  the  joy 
of  Thy  salvation."  What  would  be  the  result? 
"Then  will  I  teach  transgressors  Thy  ways/ and 
sinners  shall  be  converted  unto  thee."     Few  people 


Emiilcms  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  127 

have  converting  power  becauvSe  they  haven't  the 
joy  of  the  Lord.  God  vseldom  uses  a  man  or  woman 
who  isn't  filled  Avith  joy  to  do  His  work. 

Why  do  so  many  workers  break  down?  Not  from 
overwork,  but  because  there  has  been  friction  of  the 
machinery;  there  hasn't  been  enough  of  the  oilof 
the  Spirit.  Great  engines  have  their  machinery 
so  arranged  that  where  there  is  friction  there  is 
oil  dropping  on  it  all  the  time.  It  is  a  good  thing  for 
Christians  to  have  plenty  of  oil.  Many  people  are 
full  of  vinegar  instead  of  oil.  I  have  been  in  towns 
where  ever^^thing  went  wrong.  There  was  friction 
over  one  thing  and  another,  and  there  was  no 
blessing. 

In  the  fort3-fifth  psalm  and  seventh  verse,  we 
read:  ''Thou  lovest  righteousness  and  hatest 
wickedness;  therefore  God,  thy  God,  hath  anointed 
thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fellows.'' 
My  dear  friends,  many  people  are  hardening  others 
in  their  sins  by  w^orking  without  this  anointing, 
Sundaj^  school  teachers  are  driving  the  children 
away  from  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Ministers  that 
go  into  the  i:)ulpit  and  do  not  have  the  joy  of  the 
Lord  do  ten  times  more  harm  than  good.  Do  not 
rest  until  a^ou  have  this  anointing.  No  man  can 
give  it  to  you.  It  is  to  come  from  the  Lord.  "Ye 
shall  receive  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One."  This 
oil  of  the  Spirit  is  healing,  strengthening,  beautify- 
ing, and,  best  of  all,  there  is  a  fragrance  of  perfume 
with  it  like  that  about  the  broken  alabaster  box. 
Thank  God  for  this  blessed  anointing  for  servicel 


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